Food Materials and Their Adulterations

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FOOD MATERIALS

AND

THEIR ADULTERATIONS

BY
ELLEN H. RICHARDS

INSTRUCTOR IN SANITARY CHEMISTRY
IN THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

THIRD EDITION
REVISED AND REWRITTEN

SECOND PRINTING

WHITCOMB & BARROWS
BOSTON. 1911

FIRST EDITION.

COPYRIGHT 1885

BY ESTES & LAURIAT

SECOND EDITION

COPYRIGHT 1898

BY HOME SCIENCE PUB. CO.

THIRD EDITION

COPYRIGHT 1906

BY ELLEN H. RICHARDS

COMPOSITION, BLBCTROTYPINGi AND PRBSSWORK BY

THOMAS TODD CO.

14 BEACON STREET, BOSTON, MASS.

PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION

/CONDITIONS have changed with marvelous rapidity
^^ in the twenty years since this little book was written,
and in no quarter more than in the food problem. The
original aim of the author and her collaborators was to
arouse women providers for their families to the need of a
study of the materials they purchased, both from a sanitary
and economic point of view.

If such study was needed then, it is tenfold more
important now, since, while the women have slept, the
manufacturer has kept wide awake and has employed the
chemist to help him impose upon the ignorant and credulous
housekeeper.

With the establishment of state and city laboratories
there is not today the need of the Housekeepers' Labora-
tory which the authors tried to introduce. Nearly every
householder can find the information that she needs by a
visit to one of these laboratories if not in the printed reports.
To take an instance from a burning subject at this writing :
Since 1896, when the Massachusetts State Board of Health
first published a Ibt of patent medicines containing alcohol,
there has been no excuse for any citizen of the state to be
deceived. Common sense would have told him that such
a practice once started would go on and other names would
cover similar compounds. Housekeepers should make use
of the information which is paid for by their taxes.

It is to ring again the call to study facts and conditions
that the author and her coadjutors have decided to revise
this little volume, which has been out of print for some time.

• ••
U!

IV PREFACE TO REVISED EDITION

They are unable to understand the slowness of young women
to take up the study of chemistry after they have made it
possible and have shown the practical advantage of such
knowledge.

Doubtless some such imiversal excitement as the country
has just been through is needed to focus attention. All
this agitation over the pure food law has come about be-
cause the buyer has not kept himself informed as to the
methods of manufacture, and because the impossible has
been demanded. We are all suffering because thoughtless
and ignorant women have demanded red berries, green
pickles, bright catsup, and variegated candies, and have
not even considered whether the results were possible with-
out preservatives and coal tar dyes. It is, perhaps, an
evidence of the ancient credulity persisting in the belief
that science can work miracles. But it was to combat that
idea with knowledge that this volume was written and is
now rewritten. It seems incredible that intelligent women
could have put upon their tables canned meats " largely
corn meal" and not know the difference.

To the housewife and mother we say : For the sake of
your children keep yourselves informed of the true state
of the food manufacture. Do not accept all sensational
headlines, but yourself study and give your daughters an
opportunity to study chemistry in the high school. Encour-
age your grocer to provide honest goods. It will take time
and thought, but on what can these be better spent than on
that which gives health and vigor for the better enjoyment
of all the good things of life?

Boston, July, 1906.

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION

npHERE is neither novelty in the information which this
"*• little volume seeks to convey, nor originality in the
manner of presenting it ; but when its preparation was be-
gun, some years since, the facts here considered were for
the most part found scattered through large and costly
technical works, written for the conditions existing in Eng-
land and Germany. The books claiming to be popular
expositions were either so old as to be out of date, were
sensational, or otherwise unsatisfactory.

One excellent English work has recently appeared which
is so suitable and admirable in form, as well as in material,
that at the first glance it seemed superfluous to issue the
present one. Yet Church's " Food " was prepared especially
for the visitors to the Bethnal Green branch of the South
Kensington Museum, London, while the place which this
little volume is intended to fill is that of giving useful
information in a form available and attractive for schools
and for home reading without technicalities or unnecessary
details. It has been compiled from many sources, and it
would be impossible to credit each book with the special
facts derived from it, since the same thing in different forms
is often found in several works. Quotation marks are in-
tended to indicate all passages taken verbatim. The names
of the books consulted will be found in the list at the
end of the volume. It is in the hope that these works
may be more widely known, and the subjects of which they
treat more earnestly studied, that this slight contribution
is sent forth.

VI PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION

The conclusions are a result of ten years' experience
in laboratory examination of food materials.

The author is especially indebted to Miss S. Minns
and to Miss L. M. Peabody for valuable aid, both in the
laboratory and in the preparation of the text.

Boston, December, 1885.

CONTENTS

I. Principles of Diet i

II. The Relation of General Intelligence to the

Quality of the Food Supply .... 4

III. Water, Tea, Coffee, Cocoa 20

IV. Milk, Butter, Cheese, Eggs ..... 47

V. Cereal Foods — Barley, Rice, Oats, Maize, Rye,

AND Wheat 64

VI. Sugar 87

VII. Nuts 102

VIII. Perishable Foods — Meat, Poultry, Fish . . 107

IX. Perishable Foods — Vegetables and Fruits . .114

X. Canned Foods and Jellies 122

XI. Condiments 130

XII. Other Materials Used in Cooking . . . .147

XIII. Recapitulation 155

References 167

«

Index

*•
vu

FOOD MATERIALS AND THEIR

ADULTERATIONS

CHAPTER I

PRINCIPLES OF DIET

THE food of savage and semi-civilized man has
always been of the material most readily ob-
tained; either the flesh of animals killed in the chase^
or wild fruits native to his country, or the products of
crude agriculture.^ The nations of Northern Europe,
down to nearly the middle of the present century, ate
rye and barley bread, as wheat could not be profitably
grown in that region; and the Esquimaux today live
upon the product of the seal fishery from necessity,
not from choice.

Now, the food products of the whole world are
accessible to the people of the United States through
the use of improved methods of transportation — the
refrigerator car and steamship compartment — and
through improved methods of preservation — by cold
storage and by the canning process.

This very abundance brings its own danger, for the
appetite is no longer a sufficient guide to the selection
of food, as it was in the case of the early peoples, who
were not tempted by so great a variety.

No hard and fast rule of what to eat can be laid

^ For the diet of ancient peoples, see Food and Dietetics,
Pavy, p. 475.

I

2 FOOD MATERIALS

down. Not only is it true that what is meat to one is
poison to another, but it is also true that what a man
may eat with impunity today may cause illness tomor-
row, because the man himself is in a different condition.
After a day spent in pleasurable exercise in the open
air one may take a meal which might jeopardize his
life if taken after a day of grief, anxiety, or exposure
to severe cold.

Bodily energy is supplied by the food which has
been «* assimilated," made a part of the body tissues.
Much food eaten is never so utilized. It passes through
only slightly changed or is decomposed into toxic sub-
stances that do the body harm and not good. Illnesses
which come from this cause are said to be due to
auto-infection.

Many diseases of modern civilization are doubtless
due to errors of diet, which might easily be avoided.
Numerous dietaries have been published, but nearly all
are only of limited local application, so that when ap-
plied elsewhere they have failed and brought discredit
upon the whole plan. Only certain broad principles
can be laid down, and much intelligent study must be
brought to bear upon the question in each community.^

The first general principle is suggested by Dr. Pavy,
when he calls attention to the fact that the meat eaters
among animals, having to hunt for their food, pass long
intervals without any, and when it is obtained gorge
themselves with it, and then lie torpid for days. The
herbivorous animals, having their food always near
them, eat all the time, and are stupid all the time.

^ F. G. Benedict : Journal of Physiology.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 3

Man ought not to imitate either class. It is his
privilege to choose such times for eating and such
materials for food as will best develop his mental
power. Many writers seem to forget this, and to plan
man's food as if he were a mere animal, whereas he is
or may be very much more. His food should be such
as to keep the animal mechanism in good order for
the mind to use. It should not be overfed, so as to be
sluggish, nor should it be starved, so as to be incapable
of executing the mind's demands.

Food should be eaten for bodily profit and not for
pleasure only. The two should be combined in a
correct diet.

While the whimsicalities of the sitophobist should
be avoided and the stomach allowed to do its work
unwatched, yet each one should take pains to acquire
right habits in eating, as in walking or speaking. The
physician knows that a large part of man's ills comes
from his persisting in bad habits of eating and from
his dense ignorance of food and its effect on him.

Life is too valuable a possession to be at the mercy
of mere whims, and it is an economy of expensive
material to make the food tell in an efficient life.
Further discussion of these points belongs elsewhere.
In this volume one side of the food question only is
presented.

CHAPTER II

THE RELATION OF GENERAL INTELLIGENCE TO
THE QUALITY OF THE FOOD SUPPLY

THE prosperity of a nation depends upon the health
and the morals of its citizens ; and the health and
the morals of a people depend mainly upon the food
they eat and the homes they live in.

Strong men and women cannot be ** raised" on
insufficient food. Good-tempered, temperate, highly
moral men cannot be expected from a race which eats
badly cooked food, irritating to the digestive organs
and unsatisfying to the appetite. Wholesome and pala-
table food is the first step in good morals, and is con-
ducive to ability in business, skill in trade, and healthy
tone in literature.

This being granted, what office is of more impor-
tance to the State than that of the provider of food
for the families composing it ? The modern stock farm
has given us most of the scientific knowledge we pos-
sess on the question of foods. All this because it pays
to know the composition of the food and its effect on
the value of the stock. Shall the human animal be
considered of less consequence ?

The agricultural states of the Union have recognized
the two fundamental professions upon which their pros-
perity rests, and have established in their agricultural

4

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 5

colleges a parallel course of domestic economy to com-
plete the education of the girls.

This is an instance of wisdom, an example which
might be more widely followed, for in all our towns
and villages the housewives need to know something
of the materials of daily consumption.

The conditions of life have changed here in New
England so rapidly and completely that our young
housewives find themselves very much at a loss. The
methods of their mothers and grandmothers will no
longer answer. They had no trouble with their soap,
for they superintended its making and knew its prop-
erties. They knew how colored fabrics should be
washed, for they had the coloring done under their
own eyes. We buy everything, and have no idea of
the processes by which the articles are produced, and
have no means of knowing beforehand what the quality
may be. Relatively, we are in a state of barbarous
ignorance, as compared with our grandmothers, about
the common articles of daily use.

The only remedy is for our girls to learn something
practical about these forces and the nature of the
materials which are scattered about so freely. The
distinction between an educated cook and an unedu-
cated one of the same skill is that the educated one
can tell some one else just how and why she takes each
step, while the uneducated one can do the thing, but
cannot tell any one else how or why she does it. Let
our schoolgirls bear this in mind, and so study their
chemistry and physics that they can tell why this and
that should or should not be done. A little actual

O FOOD MATERIALS

knowledge wonderfully simplifies things, and adds
interest to the commonest deeds.

Educated women must mark out a new plan for I

themselves. Our girls must be taught to recognize >

the profession of housekeeping as one of the highest, |

although not necessarily the only one ; but, whatever '

art or accomplishment they may acquire besides, let
them consider that the management of a household is ^

not to be neglected. The properly educated house-
keeper is not a drudge ; she has all the forces of nature
at her command — the lightning harnessed to give her
light; the stored-up energy of past ages at her com-
mand by the turning of a stopcock; swift steamships i
and railways bring to her fruits and vegetables from all ^
climes ; the vast prairies furnish meat, game, and flour ;
mechanical skill gives her all kinds of labor-saving de-
vices; the general prosperity and improving taste of 1
the country admit of tasteful decoration of the rooms.
Surely, never did housekeeping present so many charms.
Alas ! the winged Pegasus is too strong for his unskilled
rider, for in his train has come a style of living both
extravagant and demoralizing. All this delicate ma-
chinery and costly luxury are committed by ignorant ^
mistresses to still more ignorant servants — conserva-
tive by inheritance and superstitious by nature, restless
with the very air of the new and to them wonderful «
country, where all men are equal, and naturally bewil-
dered by the novelties of the new life, so different from
their simple one. What wonder that the complicated
machinery comes to grief, and the tempers of both mis-
tress and maid are spoiled in attempting the impossible I

.T

f

I
1

■

i:

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS /

Within the memory of the present generation there
has crept into the heads of the great American people
a most pernicious and insidious idea — that labor with
the hands alone is degrading and beneath the dignity
of a free American citizen. Nowhere has this been
more noticeable than in the place to which housework
has been relegated.

To judge by the opinion of the average schoolgirl,
one would think that housekeeping required no more
thought than the breaking of stones on the highway.
Such may listen with profit to Ruskin when he says:
•' It is a no less fatal error to despise labor when regu-
lated by intellect than to value it for its own sake.
In these days we are always trying to separate the
two. We want one man to be always thinking, another
to be always working ; and we call the one a gentleman
and the other an operative, whereas the workman ought
often to be thinking and the thinker to be working,
and both should be gentlemen in the best sense. Now,
it is only by labor that thought can be made healthy,
and only by thought that labor can be made happy."

If this is assented to, then is not the conclusion
clear that if our girls were capable of thinking about
the many problems of housework and of investigating
new and better ways they would find the work an
interesting and worthy one ?

Just now educators are complaining of all classes
of students, saying that they are too careless or too
indolent to think for themselves, that they wish their
knowledge, like their food, '*predigested." Women of
sense ought not to shirk a little exercise of their minds.

8 FOOD MATERIALS

Political economists are beginning to take up this
subject, for they see that the ultimate welfare of the
country depends upon securing the maximum of utility
for the money spent. The money's worth must be
obtained from both material and labor. The law of
utility requires an adequate return for the value con-
sumed. A loaf of bread eaten by a farm hand returns
more than its value in the produce of that man's labor ;
so it should be with all labor, whether mechanical or
literary. A loaf of bread allowed to mold brings no
return in wheat or in useful thought, and it is therefore
wasted — so much value thrown away. So, too, if a
family consume at one meal three times as much food
as is needed to keep them in perfect health, the excess
is wasted, and sometimes worse, in that it causes dis-
ease. Not that a family which can afford beef should
live on corn meal, but that if the food is not wisely used
for pleasure or nourishment it is wasted.

It is believed by many that instruction in the funda-
mental laws of hygiene and of efficient living should
begin in the elementary school and continue through
and beyond the college.

The following statement was unanimously adopted
as the sentiment of the Lake Placid Conference in
1902 :^

'*The Lake Placid Conference on Home Economics
considers that the time has come when subjects related
to the home and its interests should have larger recog-
nition in our colleges and universities.

^Proceedings of Lake Placid Conference on Home Economics,
1904.

t

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 9

"Recognizing the fact that there is a strong and
steadily increasing demand for knowledge of these sub-
jects, believing that their educational possibilities are
not inferior to those of other subjects now in the cur-
riculum, and that instruction in these branches promotes
in a high degree individual and social efficiency, we
earnestly request that the heads of our higher institu-
tions consider the advisability of introducing such work.
This may be done either by the establishment of new
departments or by the extension of courses already
offered.

'* History, sociology, and economics deal with funda-
mental problems of the family and the home. Biology,
chemistry, and physics have important applications in
the household. This has been already recognized to
some extent by leading universities, and their curricu-
lums include such courses as 'The Family,' *The
Citizen or Householder,* ' The Evolution of the House,*
'Sanitary Chemistry,' 'Food and Nutrition,' 'Bacte-
riology,' besides work in sanitation, physiology, and
hygiene.

"The members of this conference believe that an
extension of such work where it is already established
and its introduction in other institutions would contrib-
ute to the solution of some of the most important social
problems of today."

One of the most puzzling problems which a modern
housewife has to solve is to learn the quality of the
various food materials which she provides for the use
of the family, and to know how to apportion them.
So much has been said on the subject of adulteration

lO FOOD MATERIALS

in the past few years that the peace of mind of a
conscientious woman is quite gone.

A government report on baking powder, made some
years ago, argues that the " housewife surely deserves
protection against swindling as much as the farmer (for
whom the government will make analyses of fertilizers),
and she has no better means of ascertaining the
strength and quality of the baking powder she buys
than the farmer has for the strength of his fertilizer.
The verity and accuracy of the analysis stated on the
label should be insured, as in the case of the fertilizer,
by its being performed by a sworn analyst. If such a
regulation were enforced, people would soon inform
themselves of the respective merits of the different
varieties, and the further requirements of a certain
standard of strength, as suggested by Professor Corn-
wall, would probably be unnecessary, as they would
learn to interpret the analysis, and a powder made up
of fifty per cent of starch, for instance, would have to
be sold cheaper than one made with ten per cent, or
not sold at all." ^

Reference is made several times in these pages
to the sources of reliable information, and here em-
phasis is laid on the fact that many of the alarming
statements, so disquieting to anxious mothers, are in-
serted in the circulars sown broadcast and in newspaper
advertisements by one manufacturer to decry another's
product and to promote the sale of his own. Some-
times these are not exactly falsehoods, but they may
easily be interpreted in a false way.

^Quoted in Bulletin of the Kansas State Board of Health,
March, igc6.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS I I

If the buyer used a little of that thinking power
for which we have been pleading he or she would not
be deceived. The boldness with which misleading state-
ments are printed leads to the inevitable conviction that
buyers will not take the trouble to think or to find out
from the city and state authorities what is true. In-
stead of taking the sensible course the average woman
believes every sensational article that she reads, and
does almost as much harm to her family by avoiding
a good article as by purchasing an inferior one.

The unanimous testimony of all chemists who have
carefully investigated the extent to which adulteration
of food is carried on in the United States is that, while
there exists adulteration injurious to health, there is a
much greater injury to the morals of the community
and loss to the pockets of the people. In other words,
the point to which public attention should be mainly
directed is the question of paying a high price for
an inferior article. In some portions of the country
ground gypsum — at perhaps a cent a pound — is sold
for cream of tartar at ten cents a quarter of a pound.
Now this fraud can be detected by any one who knows
that cream of tartar is soluble in hot water, while gyp-
sum is not. A cupful of boiling water poured upon
half a teaspoonf ul of good cream of tartar will dissolve
it almost instantly, giving a nearly transparent liquid.

In these days of wandering attention "scare heads'*
alone fix themselves on the public mind. So it has
come about that the word ** adulteration " looms large
in the estimation of even thoughtful persons, who pass
by the really important matter of nutritive value and

12 FOOD MATERIALS

of combination. Yet the number of deaths caused by
adulteration is infinitesimal compared with the number
caused by auto-infection (from diseases arising within
the body) and by personal indiscretion in diet.

If the present interest in the misdemeanors of the
manufacturers shall focus attention on the importance
of food to human welfare it will have served a good
purpose.

A long acquaintance with the markets of the country
in the East and West, North and South, leads the
author to the estimate that not over two per cent of the
total weight of the food sold in shops and markets is
adulterated, and that not more than an additional three
per cent is sophisticated — that is, lowered in commer-
cial value by a cheaper ingredient.

What proportion of the whole bulk of the family
food is made up by the few ounces of spices, condi-
ments, and fruit essence.? What if the color of the
occasional pink tea or green dinner is aniline dye !
One-sixteenth of an ounce is probably a large estimate
of the amount used by any one person in a year.

The extra twenty per cent of starch in a box of
baking powder, if a family uses ten pounds a year,
levies a tax of only sixty to eighty cents, or twelve to
sixteen cents a person. How many times that amount
do all today waste on candy and soda? The damage
to health by the injudicious drinking of soda and various
"bottled beverages'* is many times that caused by all
the preservatives used in food.

It is, however, true that "the use of preservatives,
usually salicylic acid or benzoate of soda, is very com-

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 3

mon in the manufacture of fruit syrups and that coal
tar dyes are freely used to give an attractive color.

«*The grape juices have usually been found pure,
but in some instances from five to seven per cent of
alcohol has been found.

*'A11 lime juices are much below standard, having
been diluted with two or three times their volume of
water/' ^

It has been the history of every harmful adultera-
tion that, as soon as the public became aware of the
nature of it, its manufacture was stopped and some new
device substituted. The remedy, then, for this sort
of fraud is the education of the general public to such
an extent that it can, with some degree of probability,
detect any flagrant case of adulteration or substitution.
It is the aim of this little book to place in the hands
of housekeepers such information as will enable them
to purchase intelligently and to know in what direction
to be suspicious of the different food products on the
market. The nature of the adulterations will vary from
year to year with the advance of knowledge and with
the detection and exposure of the accustomed frauds ;
therefore a careful watch is needed to keep the dealers
and manufacturers in check. The bulletins of each
state agricultural experiment station give the results
of examination of local markets.

Demand is the great cause of supply ; and if many
of the reasons for complaint were examined, it would
be found that the grocers, of whom we so bitterly
complain, are only supplying the demand of their cus-

1 New Hampshire Sanitary Bulletin, October, 1904, p. 70.

14 FOOD MATERIALS

tomers. Few dealers are in a position to instruct their
customers; there are occasional philanthropists among
them, but most of them must make money, and they
can do this only by supplying what the public want.
The superstition yet lingering in the minds of people
is nowhere shown more clearly than in the purchases
they make for every-day use.

Science, and especially chemical science, has achieved
so many marvelous triumphs within the last fifty years
that it is looked upon as an occult knowledge, having
the power which was attributed to the alchemy of the
Middle Ages; and even intelligent persons, perhaps
unconsciously, look upon chemical operations as capable
of transforming substances in as subtle a manner as
was claimed to be possible by the old-time searcher
after the philosopher's stone. As a result, the average
housekeeper is a fit subject for the modern alchemist —
the man who can turn cereals and apple cores into gold
by a few neatly turned phrases calculated to impress
the housewife with the profound wisdom of the
manufacturer.

"Although the words 'adulteration' and 'sophis-
tication* are in a degree synonymous, yet there is a
distinction which seems borne out in legal practice.
To adulterate the coin of the realm or the liquor of
the bar with a baser metal or an imitation whisky is
a heinous offense. So is the mixture of milk with the
baser article, water, -which thereby lowers its food value.
But the 'wretched sophistry' which obscures the na-
ture of things on a package of prepared food misleads
more persons and inflicts more injury on the community

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 5

than the other, yet goes unrebuked. The most bare-
faced assertions are printed in magazines, and *pure
food shows ' only whet the appetite for something
new/'i

In considering the probabilities of adulteration, one
important fact must not be overlooked. When prices
are low and food is plentiful there is much less reason
for admixture of foreign substances ; but when prices
are high and any article scarce, then is adulteration
rife. Take, for example, cream of tartar : in ordinary
years, when money is plentiful and gold at par, it can
be bought at from thirty-five to forty cents a pound;
but when gold was two dollars or more, as during the
Civil War, and when the risk of importation became
considerable, cream of tartar sold for two dollars or so
a pound. The poor people could not pay fifty cents for
what they had been accustomed to get for ten, but
they did not know enough of the principles of cooking
to get along without it, and so they asked for some-
thing cheaper. During those years there was very
little of the genuine article sold under the name, and
the result was poor bread and injured health.

A very good example of the law of supply and
demand was given to the writer by a man of strict
integrity, but a man of business who understood the
public temper. When quite young he kept a small
grocery store in one of the suburbs of Boston. Cream
of tartar had just come into use. A woman who had
been in the habit of purchasing her supplies at a neigh-
boring grocery came to him one day for some articles.

1 Air, Water, and Food, p. 1 55.

1 6 FOOD MATERIALS

The young man prided himself on the good quality of
his goods, therefore felt quite sure she would be pleased
and give him her custom. What was his surprise to
have her come back and complain of the quality of his
cream of tartar. It did not make as good bread as
that which she had been buying. He ventured to
suggest that perhaps it was strong and that she used
too much ; but she would not be satisfied and wanted
another kind, so he made up a package for her of two-
thirds cream of tartar and one-third rice flour ; this
satisfied her, and she became his customer. We can
hardly expect our grocers to become philanthropists
and teachers of the people. Their business is to supply
the public with the articles which it demands, and it
is from education of the public that we must look for
redress. There is great danger to the moral sense of
the community from this sort of cheating — this obtain-
ing money under false pretences (for it is nothing else).
And the public is content to be cheated ; it should be
aroused, and by a knowledge of food materials a stop
may be put to most frauds.

In the new enthusiasm for social service many stu-
dents are working at the problem of developing a fuller
life for the sinews of the republic, the wage-earners.
Each one of these students of social conditions comes
upon a find, as it seems to him, of a great leak in the
average family purse in the case of his grocer's and
butcher's bills. By all laws of economy the workman
should not spend so much of his money for food. If
he lived more economically his family could have more
recreation and a better house.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS \J

There is no more burning question in sociology-
today than this, What ought food to cost ? That the
buyer does not get his money's worth in many direc-
tions is true. It is to add one mite to the heap of
knowledge which the United States Government is
sending out in its bulletins from the Department of
Agriculture that this volume is written.

One result of this study of social conditions is the
introduction of cooking into the public schools and,,
along with the practice, a considerable amount of ele-
mentary science to serve as a foundation for further
study and an inspiration to investigation. Helpful as
these classes have been, they are still often too much
under the domination of the commercial cooking schools,
as we may term them — those which depend upon the
patronage of women who wish to outdo their neighbors
in fancy cakes, pink teas, and decorative rather than
nutritious dishes. In the one case food is used, like
fabrics and flowers, as decoration and not as that
strength-giving material which shall make men and
women workers.

The cooking classes of today must learn how to
make attractive meals out of nutritious materials, and
must pay attention to composition and quantity of food
served as well as to its outward appearance.

A great deal may be done by economy in the prep-
aration of food and in the substitution of one kind
for another, according to the cost at different seasons
of the year. Here a knowledge of the composition of
the various articles of diet will enable one to choose
and yet to give the family all the constituents needed^

1 8 FOOD MATERIALS

Tables ^ of the relative value of foods will guide a wise
housekeeper in her selection.

Another instance of the disinclination to think is
seen in the multiplication of cook books which give
recipes rather than principles upon which variations
may be made.

The modern housewife seems helpless before a new
material, utterly at a loss how to combine old materials
into new dishes, and therefore wastes good food.

However, the agitation of the subject of diet in its
relation to health is calling attention to the importance
of so vital an element in human existence, and much
progress may be looked for in the immediate future.

Undoubtedly it will need two generations of sound
teaching before bad habits in eating and drinking will
be conquered and sane, sensible methods be common.

Of all the dangers to health from eating, that of
unclean food leads all the rest. This uncleanness is
due to unsanitary production, feeding, and transporta-
tion of animals ; careless use of fertilizer on •vegetables ;
cold storage under bad conditions, both in bulk and in
domestic refrigerators ; exposure to street dust ; and
cooking and serving in unclean vessels.

These conditions result not only in actual disease,
but in lowered vitality and lessened work power, l^rob-
ably not more than twenty-five per cent of the inhabit-
ants of any community are doing a full day's work,
such as they would be capable of if they were in per-
fect health. This adds to the length of the school

1 Bulletin 28, United States Department of Agriculture, Office of
Experiment Station.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 9

course, to the cost of production in all directions, to
increased taxation, to decreased interest in life. There-
fore we say that the safety of food materials lies mainly
in the cleanly ways in which they are gathered, kept,
and prepared for the table.

For instance, berries may be picked by dirty hands,
exposed on dirty sidewalks, covered with dust from the
streets, served without suitable picking over and wash-
ing. Ice may be cut from polluted water, dragged over
sputum-covered sidewalks, and put into the ice box
unwashed.

In every direction careless handling of substances
used in connection with food seems to have increased,
and this in spite of the public dissemination of the
germ theory of diseases.

The watchword of every householder should be
clean, cleauy clean, chemically and bacterially clean.

As usual, public attention is aroused to the various
concomitant evils without touching the core of the
whole matter — personal efficiency through good food
habits.

It is well, of course, to stop all the little leaks, but
the waste at the bung hole should not be neglected.
The renewed excitement in regard to food may be
turned to good account in showing the essential value
of food to the individual and to the community.

CHAPTER III

WATER, TEA, COFFEE, COCOA

IN importance to health second only to pure air is
the quality of the water drunk. It may even be
considered as a food, for there is at least a probability
that its office in the system is more than that of a
regulator of temperature and a diluent of the blood.
From a sanitary point of view, next in importance to
the quality of the water used is that of the other
liquids which are more and more frequently substituted
for it, namely, tea, coffee, and cocoa. Beer and wine
are neither foods nor necessary beverages in this land
of good water and cheap coffee, hence they are not
here considered.

WATER

By far the largest quantity of any one thing taken
into the system through the mouth is water. The aver-
age person drinks whatever is most convenient, yet
only in the large cities with a carefully guarded water
supply is this safe. In the country nine-tenths of the
wells are more or less contaminated and are growing
worse.

It is past comprehension that men with some knowl-
edge of soil drainage and water flow should place a well
close by the cesspool and kitchen sink and expect it
to keep sweet and clean.

20

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 21

Even women with no especial training should have
reason enough to know that slops thrown close to the
mouth of the well disappear into the ground and must
find their way to the water. It seems to be assumed
that all clear, cold water comes from a great depth
and is therefore pure. Only in the case of driven wells,
where a small pipe is driven down to a known distance,
or in the case of the true artesian wells, which deliver
water in great force without pumping, is this true.
The ordinary shallow well, thirty feet or so deep, is
usually fed, in whole or in part, from near-by sources
and is always an object of suspicion. Such water,
unless tested by a reliable expert, should be boiled
before drinking, as should water taken from rivers and
small streams.

Protection is best secured by cooperation and the
introduction of a safe supply for the community, in-
stead of each one depending on his own well or cistern.
These are often sources of danger.

But the housewife will ask, " Is not the use of
filters better than depending on boiled water ? " A
coarse filter will take out coarse material such as comes
from heavy rains, from growths of algcs^ from rusting
pipes, etc, but it requires porous porcelain or sandstone
to take out excessively fine material such as bacteria.
This means very slow action and soon a clogged sur-
face. Rapid filters are all merely strainers. A flannel
bag tied on the faucet and washed every day will serve
for this as well as any expensive mechanical device.
The bone black filters will take out color, but color is
not the dangerous factor, and the water is rendered

22 FOOD MATERIALS

harder by the lime phosphate. All strainers collect the
insoluble material that they remove and should be thor-
oughly cleaned, else they are worse than nothing. All
true filters act slowly and deliver a small quantity in
an hour.

It is worth noting that the New Hampshire State
Board of Health in its July Bulletin, 1906, gives an
illustration of a household filter, with full directions
for construction and use, which has considerable merit ;
but, like all good things, " it demands intelligent super-
vision, and the occasional attention prompted by a proper
understanding of what it is and what it ought to do from
day to day."

The author wishes to impress upon her readers, even
to their weariness, that the best things are not obtained
by machinery. Very few things are really automatic.
Somewhere there must be a mind in control, a watchful
eye to see the beginnings of failure to work. Let the
housekeeper once again learn the pleasure of power over
things, of knowledge of constituents and durability, feel
once more the delight of invention, and see the work
of her mind as well as of her hands grow before her
eyes.

A serious danger to the public lies in impure wells
on dairy farms. Milk cans washed in foul water have
often been a source of disease. On the other hand,
the practice of using the well as an ice box cannot be
too strongly reprehended.

The first essential in establishing a new home is,
then, clean, safe water. The services of an expert must
be secured if there is doubt. Towns and villages are

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 2$

beginning to appreciate the fact that property is worth
more where this satisfaction may be felt.

One simple, popular test which may serve to detect
harmful materials in water is as follows : Place a pint
of clear well or spring water in a clean, white, uncracked
dish on the stove. If, on evaporation, the water leaves
dark rings on the dish, or a dark sediment in the bot.
tom, there is positive evidence of danger. If, on the
other hand, there is no sediment, we have no proof that
the water is safe. This test does not apply to surface
waters, which always contain harmless organic matter.

TEA

In regard to tea and coffee more than to any other
class of foods is there a popular misconception of the
differences in quality, caused solely by methods of prep-
aration, but often attributed to adulteration. There-
fore space is here given to the principles of obtaining
satisfactory results in the home.

The tea plant, Thea Sinensis^ or Camellia Thea^
an evergreen, is a native of China, Japan, and the
north of Eastern India, and has been there cultivated
from time immemorial. The finest tea of China is
grown between the twenty-seventh and thirty-first par-
allels of north latitude But the plant will flourish from
the equator to forty degrees north latitude.

Tea has been used as a beverage by the Chinese
for ages past. Tradition refers to it as early as the
third century. It first became known to Europeans
about the end of the sixteenth century. Until the
middle of the seventeenth, the price was from twenty-
five to fifty dollars a pound ; and a remarkable feature

24 FOOD MATERIALS

in its history is the reduction which has taken place in
its commercial value, tea now being sold at Canton at
from fifteen to twenty cents a pound, and in this
country at from twenty-five cents to one dollar. Tea i

is used at present by about one-third of the human
race. The consumption in Great Britain in 1835 was
less than one and a half pounds a head. In 1877 it
was four and a half pounds, and in 1904 six pounds.
In the United States in 1876 it was one and a half
pounds. In 1904 it was about one and a quarter pounds.
Among European nations tea is preeminently an Eng-
lish, Russian, and Dutch drink.

The quality of tea depends upon its flavor, which
should be delicate and yet full ; and this is affected by
the time of gathering (whether or not the first of the
four yearly gatherings), by the age of the tree, by the
country in which it is grown, by the quality of the soil,
and by the situation of the plantation. The two classes
of tea, the black and the green, are produced in the
same region and often from the same trees. Green
tea is rolled and dried very quickly, the whole process
being finished in an hour or two, so that the leaf keeps
its color. The idea that green tea is obtained by dry-
ing the leaves in copper pans is a popular error, which
has been persisted in for a long time, without a shadow
of truth for its foundation. For black tea, the leaves
are beaten and exposed to the air for some time, so
that a sort of fermentation sets in. The production of
the aromatic flavors is due to the processes of drying,
since the leaves when freshly plucked have neither the

odor nor flavor of the dried leaves. Hence different

1

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 2$

qualities of tea may be made from the same leaves^
according to the treatment while drying. This is the
source of the various kinds found in the market under
the names Hyson, Oolong, etc. Some teas are scented
with fragrant leaves and flowers.

Substitutes for tea are found in nearly every coun-
try. Sage leaves were frequently so used in England
a century ago. Labrador tea was prepared by the
native American tribes. The leaves of thirty-two plants
are known to have been thus used.

The important constituent of tea is an alkaloid called
theine. It is present in varying proportions, from i to
4 per cent. The theine is supposed to be in combina-
tion with tannin, which is the most abundant soluble
substance in tea, usually from 1 6 to 27 per cent. To
the tannin is due the constipating effect of tea. The
longer the tea leaves are steeped, the more tannin
the solution contains. Regard for the lining of one's
stomach would lead one to avoid all steeped teas.
The infusion should be prepared immediately before
drinking, or removed from contact with the leaves.

The odor and flavor of tea are due to an essential
oil which is present in very small quantity, and which
is developed during the fermenting and drying. For a
good tea the volatile oil must not escape. To make
a good pot of tea, scald out the pot with boiling hot
soft water, place the tea in it as soon as possible,
pour over it the boiling water, and close the pot imme-
diately; allow it to stand in a hot place for a few
minutes, but do not let it boil ; if the tea leaves are put
in a bag or ball they may be at once withdrawn. Tea

26 FOOD MATERIALS

as drunk in China is always taken clear, without any
addition of milk or sugar. The Russians add a few
drops of lemon.

Lo-Yu, a learned Chinese who lived about 700 a.d.,
says of the effect of an infusion of tea, that it tempers
the spirits and harmonizes the mind, dispels lassitude
and relieves fatigue, awakens thought and prevents
drowsiness, lightens or refreshes the body, and clears
the perceptive faculties. Modern writers claim that
tea excites the brain to increased activity, while it
soothes and stills the vascular system ; hence its use
in inflammatory diseases and as a cure for headache.
Taken in excess it has the effect of a vegetable poison.
It affects different people differently, and when it causes
nervous excitement its use should be avoided. The in-
fusion is stimulating«and not nutritive ; hence the use
of tea and toast, so common among the workingwomen
of America, is very poor economy, and is an evil, one
had almost said, second only to the use of alcohol.
Indeed, it has been called the tobacco of wonien;
for while the tea does undoubtedly allow one to live
on less food, it does not supply the place of food for
any length of time. If the exhausted leaves were eaten
after the infusion was drunk, as is the case in several
countries, it would be more economical, since they con-
tain about 20 per cent of nitrogenous matter, insoluble
in water. On the coast of South America and on the
slopes of the Himalayas the spent leaves are handed
round among the company, sometimes on a silver salver,
and much relished. In some places the leaves are pow-
dered and mixed with various nutritious substances, anp
eaten without infusion.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 27

According to the best authorities tea should not be
drunk as a beverage by persons under middle age, as
it is liable to interfere with the development of the
nervous system. But for elderly and delicate people
whose stomachs are incapable of digesting much food
the use of tea is often valuable, as it, like coffee, pre-
vents the waste of tissue, or, in other words, a person
requires less food when tea is taken ; but it should not
be used for this purpose by working people, since it tells
upon the digestive power of the stomach, and nothing
can supply day after day the lack of nutritious food.
Physicians now recognize a tea dyspepsia, and no one
with a hope for better digestion should drink tea
constantly three times a day.

ADULTERATIONS OF TEA

When tea was ten dollars a pound there was great
temptation to mix other leaves with the genuine, or
even to substitute them entirely ; also to add to the
weight by iron filings, etc, or sand gummed on plum-
bago and soapstone; the exhausted leaves were also
used. Since the price has fallen, very much less adul-
teration is practiced. It will not pay to work over the
tea leaves to any extent, yet they are occasionally
adulterated, and inferior grades due to carelessness in
preparation and to less careful cultivation are often
found.

The most common method of adulteration is by
"facing," that is, by treating with certain coloring
materials to give intensity to the color of the leaves.
The facings in most general use are Prussian blue,

28 FOOD MATERIALS

indigo, plumbago, and turmeric, often accompanied by
such minerals as gypsum and soapstone. According
to Leach ^ the Chinese and Japanese face only the teas
intended for export trade.

The addition of mineral matter may be detected by
burning a weighed quantity — one gram or more —
in a platinum dish, and weighing the ash. Good tea
gives from S to 7 per cent of ash. If the leaves are
exhausted, the per cent will be less. To ascertain the
strength of the tea, an infusion is the best test. If
the decoction is very high-colored, the tea has probably
been doctored. If there is not much extract, the leaves
have been exhausted. The surest test of this is the
specific gravity of the solution ; but even this is a deli-
cate test, since the specific gravity of a solution of 200
grains of tea in 2,000 grains of water is from 1.012
to 1. 01 4, while that of exhausted leaves is from 1.003 ^^
1.0057. Good tea should yield 26 per cent, and often
as much as 36 per cent, of its weight to boiling water.

Spent or exhausted leaves, leaves that have been
once steeped and afterwards again rolled and dried,
have been used as an adulterant, though the practice
is now rare.

Certain foreign leaves, as the leaves of the willow,
elder, rose, elm, etc, have been said to be used as
adulterants.

Stems, fragments, and tea dust are sometimes found
in large proportion.

** As a matter of fact, the worst forms of tea adul-
teration, such as the actual substitution of foreign

^Food Inspection and Analysis, p. 285.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS

29

leaves, once so commonly practiced, are now extremely
rare in this country and have been for some years, by
reason of the careful system of government inspection
in force at the various ports of entry. The greater
portion of the tea on our market today is genuine, but
fraud is practiced to a considerable extent by the sub-
stitution of inferior grades for those of good quality.
This form of deception is in many cases beyond the
power of the analyst to detect, and properly comes
within the realm of the professional tea taster."^

Tea tablets are made of finely ground tea pressed
together, and are prepared for a beverage by simply
dissolving in hot water.

The analysis of the Samovar Tea Tablets, accord-
ing to the Massachusetts State Board of Health, is as
follows :

Water

. . . 8.7

Theine

2.25

Extract

• 54-4

Ash ....

• 5-4

Soluble ash

. 2.8

Insoluble ash

. 2.6

In England all tea is sampled and inspected, and
in 1879, ^f S7S specimens examined, only three were
found to require special disposal — one damaged by
water, one consisting of exhausted leaves, and one
sanded^a

1 Leach, p. 287.

^ For illustrations of the appearance of tea leaves, and other leaves
and berries, see Bell, HassaU, Blyth, Konig, Leach, Winton.

30 FOOD MATERIALS

The Russians are said to have the most delicious tea
of any nation in Europe. They have an inland trade
with China, and choice teas are directly imported, with-
out exposure to the heat and close air of the hold of a
vessel, so injurious to teas of a delicate flavor. Their
method of making tea also has much to do with its
fine flavor, and samovars are a national feature, from
which some lessons may be learned.

The samovar is a large brass urn, lined with block
tin. The urn and the stand which raises it from the
table are all in one piece, in those I have seen. The
urns hold from four to eight quarts of water, which is
poured in through a small hole, three quarters of an
inch in diameter, in the top, and they are emptied by
a stopcock or faucet, like any hot water urn.

It is usually one servant's duty in Russia to take
care of the samovar, to fill it with the freshest of water,
to kindle the fire, and to bring it in when all is ready
for the table. A twist of paper is placed in the bottom
of the cylinder, with some splinters of kindling wood.
Upon this is placed charcoal broken into pieces the
size of walnuts. The Russians themselves often have
a special charcoal made from cocoanuts, the hard shells
making a very dense, odorless charcoal, which gives
off an intense heat. The fire is lighted from the
grate below. The chimney is put on, and the fire is
allowed to burn until all smoke and smell from the
wood and paper have passed away, and the charcoal
is in a glow. Then it is carried in and set upon the
table.

As soon as the water sends out a jet of steam from

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 3 1

the hole at the top, beside the cylinder, the tea is
made by the hostess. Now notice that the water has
just reached the boiling point. It has lost none of its
life or air. It is simply fresh, pure water brought to
the boiling point. The teapot is made scalding hot,
and the tea is taken from a caddy upon the table. At
first only a little water is poured upon it. The chimney
is taken off and the teapot is set upon the cylinder
over the glowing coals, upon the same principle as
setting the teapot in the top of the boiling teakettle
on the fire, as we often see done here in our kitchens.
In a few moments more boiling water is added, and the
teapot replaced over the coals. The tea is poured into
the cups when it has steeped sufficiently long, sugar is
added, and instead of cream a slice of lemon is slipped
into each cup. Fresh tea and water are put in the
teapot, and it is 'again placed over the coals.

COFFEE

One tradition relates that, in ancient days, a poor
dervish, who lived in a valley of Arabia Felix, observed
a strange hilarity in his goats on their return home
every evening. To find out the cause of this, he
watched them closely one day, and observed that they
eagerly devoured the blossoms and fruit of a tree he
had hitherto disregarded. He tried the effect of this
food upon himself, and was thrown into such a state of
exhilaration that his neighbors accused him of having
drunk of the forbidden wine ; but he revealed to them
his discovery, and they at once agreed that Allah had
sent the coffee plant to the faithful as a substitute for
the wine.

32 FOOD MATERIALS

The name of coffee is given to a beverage prepared
from the seeds of plants, which are roasted, ground,
and infused in boiling water. The seeds most used are
those of the Arabian coffee tree (an evergreen, Caffea
Arabica), which belongs to the natural order Ciftcko-
nacecSi the same order to which belongs the tree from
which are obtained quinine and the Peruvian bark of
commerce. It is probable that the use of coffee has
l)een known from time immemorial in Abyssinia, where
the tree is native. In Persia it is known to have been
in use as early as a.d. 875.

The first allusion to coffee in an English book is
believed to be in Burton's " Anatomy of Melancholy " :
<<The Turks have a drink called coffee (for they use
no wine), so named of a berry as black as soot, and
as bitter, which they sup up as warm as they can
suffer, because they find by experience that that kind
of drink, so used, helpeth digestion and produceth
alacrity."

The introduction of coffee into Europe was bitterly
opposed, and the use of it denounced from the pulpit.
Nevertheless the tree has been cultivated in all tropical
countries which have been colonized by Europeans.

While in Mohammedan countries its use as an anti^
soporific in the long devotional exercises rendered
it obnoxious to the conservative priests, and while
some held it to be an intoxicant, and so prohibited
by the Koran, in England it seems to have been op*
posed by liquor dealers, who alleged that the popularity
of the coffee houses was so great as to draw away
their custom. The popularity of the coffee houses

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 33

also aroused suspicion of disloyalty in the gatherings, so
that they were made the object of a royal proclamation
by Charles II in 1675.

Coffee was introduced into England at about the
same time as tea, and its use increased very rapidly ,^
until it reached its maximum in 1854, when the import
into Great Britain was 37,441,373 pounds. Since then
the consumption has decreased, partly owing to a greater
use of tea, and partly to the increase of coflfee substi-
tutes. The amount used in Great Britain in 1857 was
one and a quarter pounds a head; in 1875-77 three-^
quarters of a pound; in 1904 only three-fifths. In Hol-
land and Germany in 1885 about fourteen pounds a
head were consumed ; in 1904 less than seven pounds.
In the United States the amount was in 1885 about
eight pounds; in 1904 it was twelve pounds, and the
United States consumed about half the total supply
of the world.

Brazil now supplies more than one-half of the coffee
of the world, and nearly 75 per cent of that used in
the United States.

The most valuable constituent of coffee is caffeine^
an alkaloid identical with the theine of tea. There is
present about i per cent of it. The peculiar flavor
and aroma of coffee are due to one or more oils or
fats, which become changed to peculiar aromatic com-
pounds in the roasting. There is about 13 per cent
of these, and they probably possess the stimulating
properties noticed in the infusion. Caffeic acid, an
astringent somewhat like the tannin of tea, is present,
but only from 3 to 5 per cent. Hence the action

34 FOOD MATERIALS

of coffee is not as deleterious to the coatings of the
stomach as is that of tea. Coffee also contains sugar
to 5 or 7 per cent, which is all converted into caramel
in roasting.

The exhausted berries also contain nutritious nitrog-
enous matter, and some Eastern nations drink grounds
and all. In Sumatra the leaves ;are used, and seem
to have a large proportion of the properties of the
berry.

The effect of coffee on the human system is to
counteract the tendency to sleep, and it is almost cer-
tain that it was this property which originally led to
its use as a beverage. It also excites the nervous
system, and when taken in excess produces contractions
and tremors of the muscles, and a feeling of buoyancy
and exhilaration somewhat similar to that produced by
alcohol, but does not end with depression or collapse.
Professor Johnstone thus describes the properties and
effects of coffee: *'It exhilarates, arouses, and keeps
awake ; it counteracts the stupor occasioned by fatigue,
by disease, or opium ; it allays hunger to a certain ex-
tent ; it gives to the weary increased strength and vigor,
and imparts a feeling of comfort and repose.'* Its
physiological effects upon the system, so far as they
have been investigated, appear to be that, while it
makes the brain more active, it soothes the body gen-
erally, makes the change and waste of matter slower,
and the demand for food in consequence less.

For soldiers and travelers exposed to great hard-
ships, coffee is the best agent known for restoration of
the exhausted energies. Its use can be abused, like

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 35

that of any other good thing, but, used understandingly,
coffee is an important addition to one's diet.

There are few adulterants in whole coflfee, though,
as in the case of teas, inferior qualities are often sub-
stituted for the choicer varieties. It is very doubtful
if the old story of coflfee beans molded out of paper
pulp deserves attention.

Glazing is the process of coating the coffee beans
with white of egg or sugar, or with one of a variety of
gums. This is ostensibly for the better preservation
of the coflfee, and for the purpose of saving the house-
wife the trouble of clarifying her own coflfee. It may
be questioned, however, whether the process is not for
the purpose of deceiving the housewife with the sub-
stitution of an inferior bean for a better quality. If
this is the case, then certainly glazing is a form of
adulteration.

Ground coflfee is variously adulterated. In Massa-
chusetts the following adulterants have been found :
roasted peas, beans, wheat, rye, oats, chicory, brown
bread, pilot bread, charcoal, red slate, bark, and dried
pellets made of ground peas, pea hulls, and cereals, held
together with molasses.^

Of the ninety examples examined by the Massachu-
setts Board of Health in 1905 only four were found to
be adulterated. Two were not labeled according to the
law.

A small proportion of chicory in coflfee is considered
by many connoisseurs to impart a particularly agree-
able flavor, and consequently its use is not condemned.

1 Leach, p. 292

36

FOOD MATERIALS

The difficulty about sanctioning such a mixture is that
if you give a man an inch he will take an ell, and in
the end chicory may be the chief constituent. Here
again enters in the problem of injury to morals and
loss to pocketbooks, and of the need for protection
against "swindling."

Villiers and Collin^ give the following analyses of
two samples of chicory:

Soluble in
water

Insoluble
in water

Water (loss at lOO® to 103®)

Weight of total matter soluble in water

Reducing sugar

Dextrin, gum, inulin

Albuminoids

Mineral matter

Coloring matter

Albuminoids

Weight of the total insoluble matter .

Mineral matter

Fat

Cellulose

In
powder.

16.96
56.90

23-79
9.31

3-66

2.55
17.59

2.98

26.14

5.87

392

13-37

As yet there has been no seed found which, when
roasted and ground, corresponds with coffee, either in its
physiological properties or in the chemical composition.

The detection of the presence of chicory, caramel,
and some of the sweet roots, as turnips, carrots, and
parsnips, is quite easy. If a few grains of the sus-
pected sample are placed on the surface of water in a

^ Falsifications et Alterations des Substances AUmentaires, p. 234 ;
in Food Inspection and Analysis, p. 296.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 37

glass vessel, beaker, or tumbler, each particle of chic-
ory, etc, will become surrounded by a yellow-brown
cloud, which rapidly diffuses through the water until
the whole becomes colored. Pure coffee, under the
same conditions, gives no sensible color to the water
until after the lapse of about fifteen minutes. Cara-
mel (burnt sugar) of course colors the water very
deeply. Dandelion root gives a deeper color than
coffee, but not as deep as chicory; this is true of
bread raspings. The first two adulterations may be
more readily detected by the taste, and the bread by
its softening. Beans and peas give much less color
to the water than pure coffee; they can be readily
detected by the microscope, as can roasted figs and
dates, or date stones. But the use of the microscope
is not to be learned in one lesson, and the microscopical
examination must be made by one who has skill. In
months of practice one sees more and more each time
the instrument is used, so that, while it is an invalu-
able aid to those accustomed to its use, it is as unre-
liable as the chemical tests in the hands of the unskilled.
The preparation of good coffee requires only an
understanding of its properties, and is not as difficult
or as dependent upon complicated apparatus as is often
supposed. Raw coffee, when kept dry, improves with
age. The best Java is said to be some seven or eight
years old. To prepare the kernel for use, it must first
be properly roasted by a quick heat, like that used for
popping corn. The kernels should swell and pop in
much the same way, though not to the same extent.
When the flavor has thus been developed, and the berry

38 FOOD MATERIALS

made brittle, it is to be ground in a mill or pounded in
a mortar as fine as may be, and then, to obtain the
full strength, placed in an earthenware vessel, covered
with cold water, allowed to stand for some hours, and
brought to the boiling heat just before use. While this
is the most economical treatment, most people prepare
an infusion made by pouring boiling water upon the fine
coffee. The vessel should then be closed and allowed
to stand at a boiling heat for five to ten minutes ; it
should never boil violently, as the delicate aroma of
the coffee is then lost. According to one authority :
" Coffee, to be good, must be made strong. From one
to two ounces to a pint of water is recommended ; three
times the volume of milk may then be added. This
is better than to add water. In countries where the
best coffee is made, there is a concurrence of opinion
that roasted coffee should not come in contact with
any metal ; but that it should be powdered in a wooden
mortar, kept in glass or porcelain, and infused in porce-
lain or earthenware jugs, or other closed vessels.*' An
expensive method of preparation is by the percolation
of boiling water through the coffee, drop by drop. The
simplest apparatus for this is a flannel bag, which
carries the coffee, suspended in the coffee pot.

The following directions for making coffee in three
different ways are given by the courtesy of Mr. Frank A.
Allen, of the Oriental Tea Company, of Boston.

DIRECTIONS FOR MAKING COFFEE

I. Fill the coffee pot with cold water. Take the
required amount of coffee and turn it in. Let it float

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 39

on the water without stirring. Place on the stove to
heat, and remove from stove the moment it begins to
boil. Decant slowly and carefully into the coffee pot
or urn for the table, without disturbing the grounds
which will be settled at the bottom of the pot.

2. Measure out the required amount of coffee and
put into a bowl, and add barely enough boiling water
to dampen it. Let it stand seven minutes soaking.
Put the soaked coffee in the coffee pot, pour on the
needed amount of boiling water, and stand the coffee
pot on the stove where it will keep very hoty but not
boily for ten minutes. Pour into the table urn, as in
Rule I, and serve. A fine-mesh cheese cloth bag to
hang in the pot and hold the coffee insures clear coffee
by this method. But be sure and soak seven minutes
before putting in the bag.

3. If a French coffee pot or urn with a leacher
to strain the coffee through is used, be sure to put the
dry coffee needed into a bowl, with barely enough hot
water to moisten, and soak seven or more minutes.
Then put into the leacher, pour the needed amount of
boiling water on it, and let it strain through.

COFFEE SUBSTITUTES

We find in Farmers* Bulletin No. 122, 1900, that
coffee substitutes of domestic manufacture have long
been known. An infusion of parched corn, or corn
coffee, has met with some favor in the household as
a drink for invalids, etc. Parched wheat, peas, beans,
bread crusts, and corncobs, as well as sweet potatoes
cut into small pieces and dried and parched, have also
been used.

40 FOOD MATERIALS

The coffee substitutes found on the market today
frequently claim a high food value as well as a special
hygienic quality. **The food value of any such beverage
is evidently due (i) to the material extracted from the
coffee (or other substance) by the water used, and (2) to
the sugar and milk or cream added to the infusion."

The food value of coffee substitutes has been studied
by the Maine Experiment Station. Flour, meal, and
other ground grains contain little soluble material, but
when roasted a portion of the carbohydrates is caramel-
ized and rendered soluble. The infusions studied were
made according to directions, varying from 20 to
180 cups a pound of material. It was found that
the average infusion had the following composition :
water, 98.2 per cent; protein, 0.2; carbohydrates, 1.4;
fuel value, 30 calories a pound.

Skim milk, which is considered a rather "thin'*
beverage, contains : protein, 3.5 per cent; fat, 0.3 ; car-
bohydrates, 5.15 ; or almost twenty times as much food
material as the averages made from cereal coffee. If
made according to directions one would have to drink
4.5 gallons of an infusion of one of them which made
a special claim to high nutritive value, in order to get
as much food material as is contained in a quart of skim
milk.

The infusion of true coffee also contains very little
nutritive material. It is not ordinarily consumed on
account of its food value, however, but on account of
its agreeable flavor and stimulating properties.

In Europe hundreds of proprietary articles are sold
as coffee substitutes, such as "Datel Kaffee," wheat.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 4 1

chicory, figs, and coffee ; ** Hygienic Nahrkaffee," cereals
and acorns ; peanuts, lupines, and date stones enter into
other brands.

In America there are a number of favorite substi-
tutes prepared from roasted cereals, ground peas,
chicory, and other harmless material.

In the decade just passed the mixture of cereal
coffee with the genuine coffees has become very gen-
eral. A few of the preparations labeled as cereal
coffees in reality contain a large percentage of coffee,
at least in one case as much as 30 per cent.

It has been said that " in coffee substitutes, coffee
itself should be considered the adulterant."

The present custom in advertising coffee well illus-
trates modern methods, which should be understood by
the buyer.

A gentleman came to engage the author as expert
in a legal case against a firm which sold a coffee war-
ranted to contain no Java or Mocha coffee, and to
be free from the deleterious effects of these coffees.
The attending physician had forbidden coffee to the
plaintiff's wife, and had prescribed this brand. The
patient grew steadily worse until it was discovered that
the article used was nearly half coffee, not Mocha or
Java, but presumably one or more of the dozens of
brands now on the market from tropical countries with
which trade has been established in recent years.

COCOA

The cocoa of commerce is chiefly prepared from the
seeds of the plant Theobroma cacaOy which grows in

42 FOOD MATERIALS

the West Indies, in many South American countries,
and in some parts of Asia and Africa.^

The earliest references to the chocolate plant are in
the accounts of the explorers who followed Columbus.
It appears to have been known to the inhabitants of
Central America from time immemorial. It was in-
troduced into Europe by the Spaniards in 1520, prob-
ably before either tea or coffee was generally known.

After its introduction it was at first only a luxury,
but now it is a necessity. England and the United
States each uses annually about three-quarters of a
pound a head.

The term theobroma implies food for the gods, and
is the name given to the plant by Linnaeus, who is said
to have been very fond of the beverage prepared from
cocoa. The Mexicans called it cacaoa quahuitly and the
beverage chocolatl ; and we probably derive from these
native names our words ^^^^^ and chocolate.

The cocoa bean contains 50 per cent of fat, 13 per
cent of nitrogenous substance, half of which is soluble,
about 7 per cent of a tannin-like principle, 4 per cent
of starch, and about i per cent of theobromine, an
alkaloid resembling theine. Thus it combines in a
remarkable way the important substances which con-
stitute a perfect food, and it is not strange that it
holds so high a place in popular favor.

For the highest grades of chocolate the beans are
selected with great care and then thoroughly cleaned

^ A clear idea of the natural history of the plant and of the modem
method of cultivation in South America may be obtained from The
Chocolate Plant and Its Products, published by the Walter Baker
Company.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 43

from all dust and foreign matter. The next step in
the process of preparing the chocolate for market is the
roasting, and here the utmost caution is used to secure
a uniform effect ; for if the seeds are under-roasted the
full flavor is not obtained, while in over-roasted seeds
the flavor is likely to become bitter. By the roasting,
the shells become detachable, and are removed and sold
as cocoa shells^ while the beans, merely cracked, are
sold as cocoa nibs. As some time is required to
soften the cracked cocoa, the prepared forms are pre-
ferred, with or without fat. For these preparations
the beans are ground to an extreme fineness, so as to
form a perfectly homogeneous mass. If the chocolate
is to be a plain chocolate, it is flavored delicately and
poured immediately into molds. If a sweet chocolate
is to be made, the ground chocolate is mixed with a
definite proportion of perfectly pure, finely pulverized
sugar, flavored with the purest vanilla, and poured
into molds. When the chocolate is cooled and formed
into cakes, it is wrapped and packed for the market.

Many persons find in chocolate too much fat for
easy digestion. In certain preparations a definite pro-
portion of the oil is extracted, and we have breakfast
cocoa, a valuable food even for delicate stomachs.

In inferior (not necessarily cheaper) grades of choco-
late chemical means are used for its preparation from
the seed instead of the natural physical means which
preserve all the characteristic virtues. For instance,
they may be treated with caustic or carbonated alkalies
to increase the solubility of the fat, and deepen the
color which gives an impression of greater solubility.

44 FOOD MATERIALS

In most cases these chemical additions are found in
the ash after wholly burning the preparation.

Sometimes an attempt is made to supply the loss
of flavor by the use of fragrant gums.

Adulterations are frequently found in the sugar
which is combined with chocolate, and in the vanilla.
Or, on account of the high price of vanilla, an artificial
extract is substituted. Sometimes ferruginous earths
have been found, and occasionally foreign fats are used.

'* In preparing chocolate as a beverage for the table
a mistake has frequently been made in considering it
merely as an adjunct to the rest of the meal, instead
of giving it its due prominence as a real food, contain-
ing all the necessary nutritive principles. A cup of
chocolate made with sugar and milk is in itself a fair
breakfast." ^

** Chocolate or cocoa is not properly cooked by
having hot water poured over it. It is true that as
the whole powder is in suspension and is swallowed,
its food material can be assimilated as it is when the
prepared chocolate is eaten raw ; but in order to bring
out the full fine flavor and to secure the most complete
digestibility, the preparation, whatever it be, should be
subjected to the boiling point for a few minutes."^

Among the nations of tropical America it was the
custom to beat a mixture, of which chocolate was
the chief ingredient, into a froth by means of stirrers
or mallet-like implements, thus making a delicious
beverage.

^Suggestions relative to the cooking of chocolate and cocoa in
The Chocolate Plant and Its Products.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 45

Thomas Gage, in his "New Survey of the West
Indies," says : ** The name chocolatte is an Indian
name, and is compounded, as some say, from attCy or
as others, atle^ which in the Mexican language signifieth
water, and from the sound which the water (wherein
is put the chocolate) makes, as choco^ chocoy choco^ when
it is stirred in a cup by an instrument caUed a 'molinet,'
or 'moliniUo,' until it rise and bubble into a froath."

A similar thick, foamy drink may be made by the
addition of one tablespoonful of cornstarch, three table-
spoonfuls of sugar, and two ounces of chocolate to a
quart of milk. The cornstarch should be mixed with
about a gill of cold milk, the chocolate melted with the
sugar over hot water, and all added to the remainder
of the milk just as it comes to the boiling point. If
a thinner beverage is desired, the cornstarch may be
omitted.

In making tea we make an infusion. In making
coffee we make either an infusion or a decoction. Now
in making cocoa from the nibs or the cracked cocoa,
we make a decoction ; that is, the cocoa must actually
boil. If it stands upon the stove or range, and steeps
without boiling, we have an infusion, and we obtain as
a result an intensely bitter drink. But if it boils — and
it is an important, curious fact the difference a few
degrees of heat will make — we have a smooth, oily,
nutty beverage, which is most agreeable to drink, and
very nutritious also, which the bitter beverage is not.
There is the same difference between an infusion and
a decoction of coffee, but the bitter of coffee is not so
unpleasant nor so marked. Tea, on the contrary, and

46 FOOD MATERIALS

also all herb teas, like mint, catnip, etc, are harsh
and bitter when boiled, losing all their fragrance and
delicate flavor. Tea is more of a mere beverage than
coffee, which approaches a liquid food, though not so
nearly as cocoa does.

CHAPTER IV

HILK, BUTTER, CHEESE, EGGS

MILK

NEXT to water the milk supply of the family must
be looked to.

The milk of animals has always been used as human
food. In early ages it was the milk of goats, asses, etc.,
which was common ; now, however, cow's milk is used
all over the world.

The composition of milk may be roughly stated as
follows : water, 86 per cent ; lactose, or milk sugar,
5.5 per cent ; milk fat, 4 per cent ; casein, or curd, 4 per
cent; saline matter, 0.5 per cent. The fat is held
in suspension in the liquid in the form of globules, of
which it is estimated that there are about three and
a half millions in every cubic millimeter.

The variations in the food value of milk are great,,
so that it is quite probable that one man pays much
more than his neighbor for the same amount of nutrients.

Milk is often called the perfect food, since it contains-
all the elements necessary for nutrition, and in the right
proportions. One of the greatest advances in modern
medicine, as well as in wholesome living, is the recog-^
nition of milk as an article of diet, especially for invalids,,
young people, and fever patients. Most persons can

47

48 FOOD MATERIALS

digest it when a little lime water is added, if it does
not suit them without it.

For infants milk is the important food. Until they
are twelve or thirteen months old it should be the only
food. It is essential, therefore, that the milk supplied
be of good quality, and from healthy, well-fed animals.
Unfortunately, however, it is true that the deaths
of many children from cholera infantum and kindred
diseases are due to injurious milk.

According to the secretary of the Massachusetts
State Board of Health, deaths from diarrhoeal diseases
are much more frequent among bottle-fed children than
among those fed on the mother's milk. He estimates
that ninety per cent of the deaths among children were
of those fed on bottle milk. A similar estimate is
made by New York authorities.

Since infant mortality is a direct loss to the State,
as well as a personal grief, communities are waking up
to the necessity for a careful investigation of causes,
and for stringent regulations as to the purity of the
milk.^ The deterioration in the milk of late years is
due largely to the change from the clean, intelligent
dairy woman who cared for the milk, to the hired,
irresponsible laborer who has no sense of cleanliness.

The ordinary cow barn is filled with dust and filth,
and in the summer with flies, all contributing possible
disease-bearing organisms. Among these are certain
bacteria which find an especially congenial home in
milk and multiply rapidly, causing the so-called lactic

^ For the question of the control of the milk supply, see Farmers'
Bulletin No. 42, Office of Experiment Stations ; also Bulletin No. 20,
Bureau of Animal Industry.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 49

fermentation ; that is, the milk sugar undergoes decom-
position, whereby lactic acid is formed and the milk
becomes sour.

Inasmuch as it has been proved that milk can act
as a carrier of infection, the utmost care should be taken
in the dairy to render it impossible for the milk to be
exposed to any kind of impurities.

Another potent cause of poor milk is the concentra-
tion of consumers in the cities, necessitating the trans-
portation of milk from greater distances, so that it is
of greater age. Hence has arisen the practice of adding
preservatives to offset the lack of cleanliness.

But greater danger to health comes from the use
of milk produced under improper conditions, and from
diseased or wrongly fed cows, than from any substances
added to the milk — unless the water taken from a foul
well is used.

The most frequent method of adulteration is by the
addition of water, which reduces the nutritive value for
the same volume of milk.

Other adulterants are coloring matters, added to
give the requisite yellowness, and various chemical
preservatives to prevent souring.

The common belief that much of the milk sold is
a mixture of chalk and water is quite unfounded.

It is a wrong to sell watered milk, but it is a greater
wrong to use foul water to dilute the milk. The pollu-
tion of the milk by means of the swill-fed cow is not
nearly so prevalent as formerly, for a much closer watch
is kept by the inspector.

Since cream, which brings a higher price than milk>

50 FOOD MATERIALS

has come into general use, "topped" milk is not un-
common. Thus, by loss of the fat, the nutritive value
is again reduced, and inanition of the child is the result.

While skim milk, if sold as whole milk, must be
considered an adulterant, it has in itself a definite food
value. Whole milk and skim milk contain practically
the same amount of protein, but the former costs at
least twice as much. ** As a source of protein, there-
fore, the skim milk is twice as economical as whole
milk. On the other hand, the fuel value of skim milk
is practically but one-half that of whole milk, so that
a given amount of energy is given for the same price,
either in whole milk or skim milk."^

Of practically the same composition as skim milk
is buttermilk^ which is the liquid left after separating
the fat of the cream in butter making. To many per-
sons this is a more agreeable beverage than either whole
milk or skim milk.

The housewife should note certain evidences of good
and bad milk: (i) There should be no sediment of dirt
on standing. (2) There should be about one-sixth the
total depth of cre^n — the narrowing neck of a bottle
may make it seem even more. The milk should keep
sweet twenty-four hours, and when it tastes sour it
should separate into curds and whey, not be simply
a uniform white mass, as is likely to happen when soda
is used to keep it.

The Quarterly Bulletin of the Dairy and Food Com-
mission of the State of Wisconsin gives the following
test as **a practical means of tracing the source of

1 Farmers* Bulletin No. 72, Office of Expenment Stations.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 5 I

tainted conditions in milk. The test is made by adding
rennet to milk; after curdling, the curd is cut into
small pieces, thus allowing the whey to separate as in
cheese making. The drained curd is then incubated
at about blood heat to facilitate the rapid growth of
gas-forming bacteria. Organisms capable of forming a
gassy curd are thus able to overcome the lactic bacteria,
so that within six or eight hours the presence of pos-
sible taints may be demonstrated. Taints caused by
other than gas-forming organisms may also be detected
by this forced development. Curds made from good
milk occasionally show lafge, irregular, so-called me-
chanical holes, due to the lack of pressure on the curd
particles, while poor milks contain innumerable small
pin holes and possess a decidedly bad odor."

Many States have commissions to investigate the
conditions of dairies and creameries and to publish an
analysis of the results. The following from a report
of the Wisconsin State Commission shows the care
with which such investigations are pursued :

" Date, ; name of creamery, ; proprietary

or cooperative, ; location, ; owner or man-
ager, ; post-office address, ; name of operator,

; he has not attended dairy school at ; num-
ber of patrons, ; number of pounds of milk daily,

; number of pounds of butter daily, ; loss of

fat in skim milk, .20 per cent ; skim milk was divided
by automatic weigher; there were no screen doors or
windows ; cream hauled to daily ; drainage under-
ground a distance, then to open ditch along the road ;
some bad odor in creamery ; location and condition of

52 FOOD MATERIALS

skim milk tank upstairs, not clean ; condition of build-
ing, fair ; the building is painted outside ; condition of
apparatus, poor; condition of surroundings, fair; con-
dition of patrons' milk cans, fair ; condition of milk in
cans, good. Remarks: A general lack of cleanliness
in this place."

An example of bad conditions may be taken from
a town in Massachusetts whose milk supply is said to
increase fifty per cent in summer, owing to the influx
of summer visitors. Of i6o dairies examined, two-
thirds were found with conditions to which it was
necessary to call the attention, not only of the owners,
but also of the Board of Health.

There were lOO cow bams needing a general clean-
ing and whitewashing. In seventy-seven cases the cows
were in such dirty condition that their milk could not
be drawn without becoming contaminated with detach-
able filth. In forty-four barns there was an accumula-
tion of manure which required removal, and forty-five
cow-yards contained large pools of liquid manure. In
one case the owner bedded his cows in horse manure.
In four barns the privy was situated directly behind
the cows, and in one the floor was made to serve as a
privy.

The Illinois Experiment Station has issued an excel-
lent bulletin (No. 91, December, 1903) on preventing
the contamination of milk.

The Storrs Experiment Station of Connecticut in
June, 1906, issued Bulletin No. 42, considering the
quality of milk as affected by common dairy practices.

Encouragement to produce good milk is needed
instead of a cry against bad milk.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 53

// always costs to be clean, and clean milk costs
more to produce and deliver. Several right-minded
persons have tested the public's willingness and have
found it wanting. This must be remedied.

If housewives would unite in demanding certified
milk, and be willing to pay for it, the quality would
rapidly improve. It is poor policy to balk at an increase
in price which means health and even life, instead of
illness and death, to thousands of children.

Too loud a note cannot be sounded in warning, but
it must be based on truth, not on exaggeration. The
twentieth century woman should not allow herself to
be imposed upon by sensational literature, but should
inform herself of local conditions.

Cooperation is here a necessity, and should be sup-
ported as a business venture.

CONDENSED MILK

The extremely unstable character of milk, and the
consequent difficulty of transportation and preservation
for any length of time, have led to the adoption of
various processes for concentrating the valuable con-
stituents, which are only about 14 per cent of the
weight, into a smaller bulk and more stable condition.
The usual process consists in simple concentration.
The milk is evaporated in vacuum pans, and toward the
end heated to 212° F., in order to destroy any germs
of mold. It is put up in tin cans, sealed hermetically,
and may then be kept any length of time. Sometimes
a little sugar is added. In either case, the product is
sold as condensed milk, which often contains about
one-third as much water as the original liquid.

54 FOOD MATERIALS

Evaporated milk is offered as a solution of the
problem of supplying a safe milk for children and
invalids during the summer months. It is pure milk
evaporated, without the addition of sugar, in a vacuum
pan at a temperature of about 130*^ F., or below
1 50° F., which is much lower than that at which con-
densed milk is usually prepared. At this low tem-
perature the milk is far less changed from its normal
condition, and is more digestible than is the case when
it is heated to boiling.

CREAM

When milk is allowed to stand at rest for some
hours, the fat globules rise to the top, forming a layer
from one-tenth to one-fifth of the total thickness. This
layer, rich in fat, is called cream, and contains from
20 to 40 per cent of fat.

. A sign of increasing prosperity and of more luxu-
rious living is the extensive use of cream purchased as
cream. Apartment dwellers have no facilities for *« set-
ting" the several quarts of milk needed to supply the
breakfast table with this esteemed adjunct to the coffee,
fruit, and cereal, even if the milk could be delivered
to them in a sweet condition.

The separator at the dairy, a truly modern machine,
does in a few minutes the work of hours in dividing
most of the fat from the fluid emulsion without churn-
ing it to butter. Reduced to one-fifth the bulk, it is
much more easily transported and delivered to cus-
tomers. It is sold as heavy or thin cream.

Probably this use of cream has been the means of

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 55

abolishing the now berated American breakfast of steak
or eggs and bacon with hot breads.

The good prices obtained for cream have doubtless
led to some abuses, such as the addition of thickening
substances and preservatives. Sucrate of lime, or vis-
cogen, is not in itself harmful, nor does it injure the
cream. If, however, a person is avoiding the use of lime
salts in water and other foods, this unknown amount
of the forbidden substance may prove hurtful. Gela-
tin is not an objectionable article of diet when properly
prepared, but as a thickener of cream it is out of place.

Cream naturally thickens on standing, owing to the
chemical changes in even clean cream.

Sterilized cream has not quite the flavor of fresh
cream, but it is safer than dirty cream unsterilized.
Fortunately, cream is very easily changed in taste and
odor by foreign substances, and therefore is not so
deceptive as other adulterated products.

The use of cream instead of milk for infants renders
it imperative that the public generally should be awake
to the conditions of the cream market and should sus-
tain the city and state authorities in their endeavors
to protect the helpless children.

The matter is in the hands of the buyer. If he
will use only certified milk and cream, then the laws
can be enforced.

BUTTER

Butter is a very important article of diet, especially
in English-speaking countries. It is of all animal fats
the favorite, not only on account of its pleasant taste.

S6 FOOD MATERIALS

but because it is the most easily digested. Butter with
bread forms an almost perfect food.

Herodotus, in his account of the Scythians, makes
an obscure mention of butter, and this is the earliest
reference known. Dioscorides is the first to observe
that when melted and poured over vegetables it serves
the same purpose as oil, and that it can be used in
pastry. It is not mentioned by Galen, or other writers
of his time, as food, and indeed to this day it is little
used in southern countries, so that it might almost be
said to be a product of northern civilization in its
present uses. There is undoubted evidence that butter
was well known to the Anglo-Saxons and used for
salves and medicines.

Butter is prepared by separating the fats from the
water and curd of milk by agitation, which causes the
lighter particles of fat to rise. These then are collected
and worked into a homogeneous mass. This process
seems to be very successfully accomplished at present
by the centrifugal machine.

Good butter consists of fats, water, and curd. The
water varies from 8 to i6 per cent. Over i6 per cent
is injurious to the keeping of butter. There should
not be over i per cent of curd left, because it tends to
grow rancid and mold, thus tainting the butter.

The manufacture of butter has passed from the
care of the farmer's wife to that of the company em-
ployee — to its advantage in some respects, but with
certain deteriorations.

The skilled dairy woman, with a pride in the flavor
and keeping qualities of her product, furnished an arti-

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS $/

cle rarely found today, in spite of the artificial ripening
of the cream by B^^, or whatever bacterium is the
favorite. On the other hand, creamery butter is of a
more uniform quality and better flavor than the butter
of ignorant ^nd careless butter makers.

There is a great temptation to cheat the pigs to
increase the yield of the valuable product, butter, by
stuffing with the curd. The old-fashioned country but-
ter, packed in tubs to keep eight months, contained
only lo to 12 per cent water and curd. The creamery
butter of today, especially the light-colored, unsalted
variety, frequently contains 20 per cent water and 5 to
10 per cent curd, lessening its fuel value, although
increasing its nitrogenous value, which is not what we
expect to pay for in butter. The author has found as
high as 33 per cent of curd.

This excess of curd does not injure the flavor, but
rather adds to it when fresh. Since, however, it is
more readily attacked by decomposing organisms which
give very disagreeable tastes and odors, such butter
soon spoils and may become dangerous. It should
therefore be eaten while fresh.

The United States standard for fat is not less than
82. 5 per cent.

Butter is very sensitive to unpleasant odors, and
must be kept with great care, in closed vessels, since
even a few hours' exposure to ordinary air injures the
delicate flavor. It would be well if all girls could serve
an apprenticeship in a good dairy for a few weeks, in
order to learn cleanliness.

The 70 to 86 per cent of butter fats are for the

58 FOOD MATERIALS

most part identical with those in olive and palm oils,
and in other animal fats ; but the peculiar flavor of
butter is due to the presence of 5 to 8 per cent
of butyric, capric, caprylic, and caproic acids. These
fatty acids are much less stable than oleic, palmitic,
and stearic acids, which are often called the fixed fatty
acids. In butter, human fat, and goose fat, palmitic
acid is the most abundant. It is so named from its
occurrence in palm oil. Oleic acid is common to these
fats, and to beef, mutton, and hog fats. Stearic acid
is found in small quantities in butter, while it is a chief
and constant constituent of beef tallow.

During the Franco-German War, in 1870-71, a
French chemist, M6ge-Mouries, invented a process for
obtaining from other animal fats the fatty acids com-
mon to them and to butter, and making from them
a very fair artificial butter, for the use of the French
army. The name oleomargarine is derived from the
fatty acids present — oleic and margaric, as the mixture
of stearic and palmitic acids was formerly called.

Oleomargarine and butterine are prepared in a sim-
ilar manner from oleo oil (beef fat) or neutral lard and
milk by churning and salting and coloring to imitate
butter. These are wholesome food products, and their
use furnishes a much needed fat to an economical diet.
As a rule oleo keeps better than creamery butter, and
if the latter is loaded with curd the oleo has a higher
food value. But they should be sold under their own
names.

Rarely has there been a fraud so difficult to
detect, since not only the apparent but the real

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 59

differences between genuine and artificial butter are
but slight. Yet careful chemical analysis will show
about 87 per cent of fixed fatty acids in butter,
and about 95 per cent in the fats used in making
artificial butter.

Reichert's process of determining the volatile acids
peculiar to butter answers well in skilled hands. An
analytical chemist has little difficulty in deciding upon
the quality of a suspected sample. The expense at-
tending such an examination, however, prevents its
application as often as is desirable. The detection of
the crystals of the different fats, as proposed by Taylor,
may be an important aid. Some simple and easily ap-
plied test is much to be desired, but the public yet
awaits its discovery.

Butter which has become rancid may be sweetened
or ** renovated " on a large scale by a process long used
by the housewife in essential. It is melted, the curd
and brine allowed to settle, and the scum removed ; the
butter fat is then aerated by a current of air blown
through it in some cases to take out disagreeable odors,
and then churned with milk, whole or skimmed, cooled,
and packed. This butter will not keep as long as
fresh, well-worked butter, and if sold without a correct
label is a fraud.

The carrot and certain weeds served the farmer for
his butter color. The dairies used annato, but the
creameries find the coal tar yellows preferable. These
may be detected by boiling bits of silk or wool in an
alcoholic solution of the butter fat with the addition
of water and cream of tartar.

60 FOOD MATERIALS

One of the State chemists says, **The practice of
coloring butter is now so firmly fixed, and the taste
of consumers so bent to the false standard, that it is
not probable that it will ever be abandoned."

CHEESE

Good cheese is composed of the total solids of milk
curdled by rennet before the milk sours. Poor cheese
is made from skimmed milk, and hence has less fat.
Cheese is really a condensed milk, less the sugar and
part of the mineral salts, and is a valuable article of
diet, replacing meat, to a great extent, with those whose
stomachs it suits ; but on account of unjustifiable preju-
dice it is much neglected. One pound of dry cheese is
estimated to contain as much nitrogenous substance as a
pound or a pound and a half of beef as purchased. The
rind of the cheese may have been brushed over with
some metallic salt to preserve it from the attacks of
fungi, etc, so that it is well to pare it off before eating.

The ripening of cheese has been the subject of
much study.

The dairy schools give close attention to the pro-
duction of all varieties, and very soon American cheese
may be had of any desired quality, instead of the for-
mer crude, tough substance that is digested only with
difficulty.

The great advantage of cheese is that it may be put
up on the dairy farm under cleanly conditions and then
transported and kept without change, being too con-
centrated for ready decomposition.

Dangerous preservatives rarely find their way into

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS

6l

cheeses. ''Filled" cheese has the butter fat replaced
by foreign fats, such as lard and cotton seed oil.

Composition of Different Kinds of Cheese ^

Cheddar

Cheshire

Stilton

Brie

Neufchatel

Roquefort

Edaun

Swiss

Full cream, mean of 143
analyses

Water.

Casein.

Fat.

Sugar.

Per cent.

Per cent.

Per cent.

Per cent.

34.38

26.38

32.71

2.95

32.59

32-51

26.06

4.53

30.35

28.85

35-39

1.59

50.35

17.18

25.12

1.94

44-47

14.60

33-70

4-24

31.20

27.63

33'^^

2.00

36.28

24.06

30.26

4.60

35-80

24.44

37.40

• •

38.60

25-35

30.25

2.03

Ash.

Per cent.

3-58

4-31

3-83

5-41
2.99

6.01
4.90
2.36

4.07

EGGS

Eggs contain all the necessary constituents of food
in the most concentrated form — so concentrated as
to be unsuited for the whole of the daily ration. For
convalescents they are invaluable when they can be
obtained fresh.

Eggs as bought consist of about 1 1 per cent shell,
32 per cent yolk, and 57 per cent egg-white or albumen.
The yolk has the highest food value because it contains
less water and more fat. Egg-white contains 86.2 per
cent water, 12.3 per cent proteid, 0.2 per cent fat.
Egg-yolk contains 49.5 per cent water, 15.7 per cent
proteid, 33.3 per cent fat. The yolk contains more
mineral matter and is an especially valuable food in
anaemic and nervous conditions.

The egg production of the United States is one of

1 Table compiled by Well, in Leach, p. 1 58.

62 FOOD MATERIALS

the most important and valuable. It is estimated at
not less than a billion dozens. Dietary studies have
shown that eggs constitute three per cent of the total
food.

The normal eggshell has a natural coating of mu-
cilaginous matter which prevents the various micro-
organisms from passing through, at least for a time;
but if this is washed or rubbed off putrefaction sets in
and proceeds with rapidity because of the rich food
material.

Water evaporates through the pores of the shell,
so that old, unvarnished eggs are of greater specific
gravity than new-laid.

Cold storage in a fairly moist atmosphere is the
usual method of keeping and transporting eggs. They
must be kept by themselves as they absorb odors very
readily.

Various methods of preserving — packing in oatmeal
or bran, covering with brine or lime water, treating with
salicylic acid, varnishing with collodion or shellac —
have been tried, with a usual loss of half the pack.

At the North Dakota Experiment Station marked
success has been obtained by coating the fresh, un-
washed eggs with a dilute solution of water glass (one
part of the thick, not too alkaline syrup as purchased
to ten parts of water). These eggs are said to keep
all their qualities, even that of beating up well for
frosting.

Desiccated eggs have been successfully prepared for
provisioning camps and expeditions. The water being
removed enables four times the food value to be carried
in the same weight.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 63

Several egg substitutes have appeared on the mar-
ket. One of considerable food value is said to be made
from skim milk and flour, probably slightly colored.
Others seem to be chiefly starch highly colored. These
cannot replace eggs in the diet, since they contain little
nitrogen and almost no fat.

One " remarkable substitute for fresh eggs " has
recently been put upon the market with the claim that
•*the contents of this can is equal to and will do the
work of thirty-six fresh eggs." Examination shows it
to consist almost wholly of artificially colored corn meal.
The most astonishing thing about such frauds is that
intelligent women can be found to buy them. The
German immigrant woman would know better.

CHAPTER V

CEREAL FOODS BARLEY, RICE, OATS, MAIZE,

RYE, AND WHEAT

THE term cereals has come to have a limited
significance since the universal introduction of
breakfast foods.

The public needs to be reminded that there are
only six or seven grains in common use and that the
365 brands of cereals must be made from these, and
therefore that the same 'thing must be sold under many
names.

Cereals all belong to the family of grasses, and some
member of the group flourishes in every latitude. Bar-
ley grows even within the arctic circle, and thence
southward are found, in the following order, oats, rye,
wheat, maize, while within the tropics rice is found.
The seeds of these plants have been used for the food
of man from time immemorial. They are the most
abundant of all food substances. The Egyptians have
a tradition that barley was the first to be so used.

A general description will serve for all the seeds or
kernels. The shape is from round to oval or oblong,
with a groove on one side running the length of the
kernel. This indentation serves to protect the germ
which it incloses. Outside the germ are usually rec-
ognized three layers. The outer layer, which serves
to hold the inner ones compactly together and to keep

64

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 6$

them dry, is made up chiefly of woody fiber, or cellu-
lose, and is comparatively worthless for the purpose of
nutrition. Next there are in most grains one or more
layers of cells which contain nitrogenous and phos-
phatic compounds ; while within, forming the body of
the seed, is found the mass of starch granules, larger
and smaller, with intermingled cells of the glutinous or
albuminoid constituents. All these are supported in a
loose framework of cellular tissue. The proportion of
these constituents varies greatly in the different grains
and in varieties of the same grain. Rice has the largest
proportion of starch, and oats contain the most oily and
phosphatic material.

The term ^our is often used to designate the meal
or powder obtained by the grinding of any species of
grain or seed. But the use of the word in the United
States is for the most part limited to the finely ground
portion, the more starchy portion; while by the term
mea/ — a Saxon word meaning finely ground, soft to
the touch — is understood the product of the grinding
of the whole grain. Both terms are generic, and are
qualified by a descriptive adjective, as wheat flour^
corn meal, etc.

Barley and rice are for the most part cooked whole ;
oats and maize are coarsely crushed ; while wheat and
rye are finely ground and separated into the flour,
or white sifted starch and gluten, and the husk or
bran which is left after the bolting, as the sifting is
technically called.

The greatest change in the habits of food consump-
tion which the last twenty years has developed is in

66 FOOD MATERIALS

the greatly increased use of prepared cereals — both
cereals which may be cooked quickly and those which
may be eaten uncooked.

There are several causes contributing to this result-
Chief of these is the money to be made by the quick
marketing of a popular food. When a particular name
begins to pall, the same material, or that combination
with a slight variation in appearance, is put on the
market under a new name. Prizes are offered for a
name which will sell the packages most quickly. Much
ingenuity has been spent on this manufacture of cereals
into new shapes, and more. on the advertising descrip-
tion of them. The constant demand for something
new, as if Burbank could indeed use the wizard's wand
on the grain fields, has flooded the market with pre-
pared foods — a brand for every day in the year made
from the varieties of grains known for thousands of
years.

The introduction of gas stoves and the habit of a
continental or meatless breakfast, often eaten in the
living room, have created a demand for a tasty cereal
to be served without the trouble of cooking. A morbid
craving for variety and the too often poor quality of the
cooked cereal served in boarding houses and hotels has
also favored the use of the various "flakes,** which make
such admirable conveyors of cream and which crackle
so delightfully.

There is little cause for alarm as to the introduction
of poisonous substances into these products. It may
be possible that in some cases impure chemicals have
been used, but it is very doubtful if direct addition of

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 6/

poison has occurred. The chief danger is to be found
in the ignorance of the public as to food values and the
needs of the body.

In order to furnish the heat and energy for a day's
work or pleasure at least eight or ten ounces of carbo-
hydrates and three ounces of fats are needed. These
fluffy, flaky materials occupy space, but have little
weight compared with more solid food. Therefore the
consumer is apt to be deceived as to the quantity.
Again, these foods are partly transformed or predi-
gested, so that they pass quickly into circulation, giving
a satisfied feeling, which soon passes, leaving a hunger
liable to be quieted by nibbling at candy, chocolate,
or crackers between meals.

If deluged with rich cream and sugar the food
value of the dish is greatly enhanced. The addition
of the sugar, however, for a breakfast dish is not to
be recommended. Fermentations inimical to the best
assimilation of food are likely to arise.

It is interesting to note that in the recent discussion
of pure food legislation the clause requiring the weight
to be put on the package failed of enactment. That
would have affected the cereal foods, for when many
housewives realize that they pay twenty-five cents a
pound for some fancy name, but for no more food
value than they can obtain for two and a half or three
cents, then they will count the cost of gas and time
to see if they can afford the difference.

Full analyses and descriptions of the important
brands have been made by the states of Wyoming,
Maine, and Connecticut, for instance. From the pub-
lished facts the following comparison is compiled :

68 FOOD MATERIALS

Bulletin No. 84, Maine Experiment Station, 1902,

Orono, Me.

cereal breakfast foods

Market Price

Cost

perpound
Cents

Nichols Snow White Samp 2.1

Quaker Oats 3.1

Nichols Pearl Hominy 4.5

Quaker Rolled White Oats * . . . . 6.3

Pettijohn*s Breakfast Food 7.0

Cream of Wheat 8.8

Malt Breakfast Food 9.4

Wheatena 10.7

Grape-Nuts 14.6

Shredded Whole Wheat . . . . . 15.0

Force 16.5

Flaked Rice 18.2

Granose Flakes 22.4

Granula 27.2

For ten cents one buys of the last named 677 heat
units of food value, and of the first 8,200 heat units —
enough for nearly three days' ration. The cost of gas
for cooking is, however, to be taken into account.

The truth about breakfast foods is that the house-
wife saves time and trouble at considerable cost to her
pocket.

The Bulletin says : *' Of the fifty brands recently
collected only twenty-one are foimd in the list of three
years ago. There seems to be a tendency on the part
of manufacturers to substitute new and attractive names
for a product that has been before the public for some
time.*'

This is caused in part by the deterioration which

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 69

the manufacturers permit, either by the packages be-
coming stale and even wormy or by less care in pro-
duction. During the time of introduction the new
name means fresh material.

Rolled oats, and some other grains, are softened by
steaming raw, crushed by rolls, and then dried so as
to keep. The starch is then more soluble. Sometimes
the heat is dry heat, either at first or after steaming,
and then there is a dextrinizing and browning, like the
crust of bread.

The malted foods are mixed with barley and partly
predigested

These prepared cereals have their place, but the
family provider, not the manufacturer, should decide
what that place shall be in each case.

The lazy habit of obtaining information (.?) from the
label, instead of developing common sense ^ and real
knowledge, is responsible for most of these drains on
the pocket.

As stated before, it is within the power of every
housewife to know^ and the bureau of information
should find a place in every club.

As to the loss in food value by this predigestion of
the prepared foods the last word has not been said.
Cooking doubtless changes the relations of the various
ingredients, but the waste within the body of the mushy
cereals may cause some to be more than double the
value of others.

The steam cooking either does not develop or dis-
sipates the flavor, so that one tires of the mush or adds
sugar — a dietetic sin — and cream and fruits. In this

70 FOOD MATERIALS

respect the flaked and toasted varieties are more
"tasty/* if not more digestible, as they may well prove,
however, if thoroughly masticated.

BARLEY

Barley belongs to the genus Hordeum, It is prob-
ably a native of Northern or Central Asia, but it has a
remarkable power of adapting itself to a great range
of temperature, and has a wider distribution than wheat
or oats. On the eastern continent its culture extends
from 70° north latitude to 42*^ south, and in Amer-
ica from 62° north to 20° south. Its use as an article
of food is coeval with the history of man. It yields a
greater produce per acre than any other grain except
rice. It was largely cultivated by the Romans, and
used chiefly as food for horses. In England, in the
middle of the seventeenth century, it was commonly
used as the food of the people because it grew readily
in any part of the kingdom. Since improved means
of transportation have brought all countries within a
few days of each other, wheat is carried to lands in
which it will not thrive, and people no longer need to
live on the produce of their own soil. Barley has less
starch and more cellulose, mineral matter, and fat than
rice. It is largely used for the manufacture of beer,
being better suited for it than the other grains. Its
flavor should commend it to the intelligent consumer
for more varied use.

RICE

Perhaps no other food stuff has been so misrepre-
sented as rice. On the one hand, it is often stated in

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 7 1

print and in conversation that rice is " only starch and
has no nutritive value." On the other hand, the Chi-
nese and Japanese and other East Indian people are
said to *Mive on rice." It has been represented, in the
case of the recent war, that the Japanese soldiers went
through this strenuous campaign on rice.

This only illustrates the need of universal education
in the matter of food values. Under the direction of
Prof. W. O. Atwater this subject was thoroughly in-
vestigated by the United States government at the
time of the Chicago Exposition with reference to sev-
eral groups quartered in the Midway, especially in the
case of the Java village. Other studies of the dietary
habits of so-called rice-eating people have been made
on the spot with the same general result, namely, that
rice is found to take the place of bread, potatoes, and
vegetables — in a word, furnishes the pound of starch
a day which other nations take in a variety of forms.

Since rice contains only a small proportion of either
fat or nitrogenous compounds, it cannot form the sole
food of human beings for any length of time, but the
great bulk of cooked rice has misled many observers,
and caused them to overlook the concentrated nitrog-
enous food which always accompanies it. For instance,
the Java village people brought with them potted fish
roe to furnish in large degree the needed nitrogen.
The Chinese in San Francisco import from China dried
ducks* livers and hard-boiled ducks' eggs. All the
peoples who have been investigated use meats, chicken,
ducks, fish, or some other form of proteid supply.
They do not use this in the wasteful excess in which

72 FOOD MATERIALS

American communities usually revel, but in a sufficient
quantity, as a rule. It is the fat which is more often
lacking in their diet.

Rice is admirably adapted to serve as a conveyor
of fat and proteid, in the form of cheese, for instance.

Different varieties show differing food values. The
Japanese variety is richer in nitrogen substances.

The rice of commerce is the product of the grass
Oryza sativUy probably a native of the East Indies, but
cultivated in all portions of tropical and subtropical
regions. It forms the principal food of nearly one-
third of the human race, and enters largely into the
diet of all civilized nations. It has been known in
China for 5,000 years. The outer coat of woody fiber
does not adhere closely and is easily removed, so that,
as sent to market, the shelled grain is the inner or
starch kernel. The wild rice of North America be-
longs to another genus, Zinania aquatica. It grows
in the north temperate regions, and deserves more no-
tice than it has hitherto received. Rice flour is now
largely used in the adulteration of many finely ground
foods and of condiments.

** History tells us that the first rice grown in this
country was introduced in 1695 by the captain of a
brig from Madagascar, who gave some seed to Governor
Smith and his friends to experiment with, and the re-
sult has been an important industry. The rices which
chance introduction had brought in were looked upon
as the finest in quality in the world and were exported
to Europe; but with the call for a whiter and more
polished product than the hand-threshed rice of plan-

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 73

tation days came machine-polished rice, and the center
of the rice industry w2ls transferred to Louisiana and
Texas by the discovery of artesian wells in those states.

'*The machine-polished rice that we buy in this
country today is, as every one knows, a truly beautiful
thing to look at, but as tasteless as the paste that a
paper hanger brushes on his rolls of wall paper. The
leather rollers of the machine not only rub off all the
fine outer layer of nutritious matter, and with it the part
that gives flavor to the kernels, but they often break
the long, slender grains that characterize the famous
Carolina golden rice. This breakage is so great that the
Louisiana growers begged for assistance, and the new
Office of Plant Introduction sent Dr. S. A. Knapp to
Japan in search of a short-kerneled variety that would
not break in the milling process. Today Dr. Knapp
declares that one-half of all the rice grown in Louisiana
and Texas is the Kiushu rice that had its origin in the
introduction made in 1899.

"This new rice has reduced the breakage from
forty to ten per cent, and has at the same time brought
into culture a more productive rice. It has not done
away with the pernicious practice of polishing, but an
interest in the unpolished rice has lately been aroused
that, it is hoped, will lead to the abandonment of a
practice which robs the buyer of nearly all of the
flavoring matter of the rice and leaves only the starchy
portion. It is a disgrace that the most intelligent na-
tion in the world should be so ignorant of the food
value of the crop on which more people live than on
any other, that they should insist on having their rice

74 FOOD MATERIALS

made as shiny as polished glass beads, although in so
doing they are throwing away the best part of it. No
rice-eating people treat their rice as we do, and it is to
be hoped that the small markets that have been started
for the unpolished rice will lead to a general propaganda
in its favor." ^

OATS

Oatmeal is prepared from two species, Avena sativa
and Avena orienialis, which belong to the same natural
order as wheat. This grain grows best in a cool, moist
climate. Its native country is not known with cer-
tainty. There is evidence that the plant was known in
Britain in 1296, and mention is made of the use of oat-
meal porridge as an article of food in 1596. In 1698
the consumption of oatmeal was second only to barley,
but wheat has gradually taken its place in Southern
England. By kiln-drying and removing the husk,
groats or grits are obtained, which, when ground, yield
oatmeal. The husk is not as completely removed as in
the case of rice, and the meal is not as white as wheat
meal. Although it contains a large proportion of nitrog-
enous matter, it is not in the form of the tenacious
gluten of wheat ; hence it will not make light or porous
bread. Oatmeal is not as easily digested as wheat flour,
and as a staple article of diet it is best suited to persons
who are much in the open air; but a portion of the
morning meal may advantageously be of this very
nutritious grain. Blyth says that in England it is
sometimes adulterated with barley meal.

1 National Geographic Magazine, April, 1906.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 75

MAIZE

Maize (Zea mays) is remarkable in the order of
grasses for the large size of its grains, and for the
heads into which they are collected. It grows wild in
the neighborhood of Mexico and in tropical America,
and has now been introduced into every quarter of the
globe, though it cannot be relied upon as a field crop
in Great Britain. It has been said that what wheat is
in Europe and rice in Asia, maize is in America.

Maize, or Indian corn, as it is called in the United
States, was not much consumed in England until the
year of the potato famine, in 1846, when hominy
was imported. Now millions of pounds are annually
imported, chiefly from the Black and Mediterranean
Sea borders. It is the leading cereal crop in the
United States, four times as much as wheat being
grown. It is an excellent food, easily digested and
very nutritious. It is much used for the preparation
of starch and for "infants' foods." The starch is
separated, and used in place of the more costly arrow-
root. It is used in the manufacture of glucose,
whisky, etc, and is fed to animals.

RYE

As a food rye possesses advantages which entitle it
to a more careful cultivation and a wider use. It is less
irritating to the digestive tract than wheat, and its flavor
in combination with other grains would give a greater
variety of breads.

Rye (JSecale cerate) is nearly allied to wheat. The
grains are smaller, and the flour not so white. It is

76 FOOD MATERIALS

very rich in nitrogenous substances. It grows a little
farther north than wheat flourishes, and it thrives on a
sandy soil too poor for any other grain. The bread
made from rye flour is not so white and light as that
made from wheat flour, but it is extensively used in
Europe. The chief objection to its use is, that it is
liable to be injured by a fungus, which produces an
appearance like a spur, and which is called ergot. If
these swelled grains are ground with the others, the
flour is rendered unwholesome and even dangerous.

WHEAT

Wheat flour is prepared from the seeds of Triticum
sativum. The cultivation of wheat has superseded that
of all other grains in climates where it will thrive (in
the temperate zone as far as 60° north), but in the
Middle Ages it was food for the wealthy classes only.
Its use has been constantly on the increase, until it is
now food for all classes.

The reason seems to be, that bread made from it
has no unpleasant or pronounced taste, so that the most
fastidious palate does not become weary of it, and has
a light, spongy, or porous character, quite peculiar to
the wheat loaf. This adapts it for ready digestion, and
is due to the peculiar nature of gluten, which in good
flour is very elastic, and when the moistened dough is
compressed causes it to spring back again to its place.

The quality of the prepared flour is dependent upon
the variety of wheat, the curing of the ripened grain,
and the process of grinding.

There are two kinds of wheat, the hard and the soft,
which are referred to in the description of the grinding.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS *jy

The curing of wheat is of the utmost importance,
for if the grain is allowed to become damp and moldy
a disagreeable flavor will be communicated to the flour.

Among other quick methods of producing effects
formerly gained only by time is that of aging flour
by electricity. This bleaches the flours, and may
permit of the admixture of a less white or lower grade
flour. According to an advertisement in a recent issue
of the Modem Miller^ two-thirds of the flour manu-
factured in the United States is so aged. Such flour
appears to give a test for nitrites by the method used
for water.

For grinding two processes are used, which are
known as high and low milling. In early times the
kernels were brayed in a mortar, and later they were
ground between stones. Low milling is a grinding be-
tween two large, round stones, one or both revolving
at so small a distance from each other as to crush the
kernels, which are caught, as it were, by radial grooves
in the stones. The wheat is often moistened in grind-
ing, as it is thought to be more readily crushed. The
heat developed is considerable, so that the tempera-
ture of the flour as it comes from the stones is about
120° F. The heating, and the grinding of a portion of
the husk so fine that it sifts with the body of the grain,
are the chief objections to this method. It is thought
that the heat may change somewhat the character of
the gluten, rendering it less tenacious, and so the flour
less fit for the making of light bread. The action is
purely a single crushing, and was used for the softer
kinds of wheat. High milling, which is a succession of

78 FOOD MATERIALS

crackings, or of slight and partial crushings, alternating
with sifting and sorting, is better adapted to hard
wheat. There is also a mixture of the two processes
called half high milling.

In general, the modern commercial process may be
described as follows : The wheat is first cleaned, then
passes to a series of cylindrical rolls arranged at dis-
tances so graded that when the wheat kernel passes
between the first set it is merely cracked; then the
fragments drop between the next set and are again
cracked, and so on, each set pulverizing a little finer
than the preceding one. In this way the husk is not
bruised, only flattened out and loosened so that the
dry starch granules drop out. The flour is not heated,
since it is not subjected to friction, and since it falls
through the cool air between each set of rolls. At each
grinding the fine flour is removed by bolting, and finally
all the different streams are blended to form different
grades of flour. It is thought that the separation of
the non-nutritious portion is also more complete, and
hence that the flour is richer in the phosphates and ni-
trogenous substances which are found in the layer of
cells next the husk. Since there are no particles of
bran in the high-milled flour it is whiter, and since it
has been ground dry it has less moisture and will keep
longer.

Low milling yields about 80 per cent of flours of
various grades, diflfering comparatively little from each
other. High milling yields about 75 per cent of mer-
chantable flour, 72 per cent being straight grade or
ordinary white flour.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 79

Flour for household use will perhaps average 70 per
cent of starch and dextrin, about 7 per cent each of
sugar, mineral matter, and cellulose, i per cent of fat,
and about 15 per cent of albuminous or nitrogenous
substances. These constituents are so proportioned
as to render wheat flour a highly nutritious food,
capable by itself of sustaining life and health.

"The durum wheat, from which the bread of the
common people is made in Southern Europe and Russia,
was almost an unknown thing on our grain markets
until 1900; but today it is a living question in the
milling centers of the Northwest. It is a wheat for
the dry lands, where the ordinary kinds grow poorly
or not at all, and it yields so much more per acre
and is so much surer a crop that, even if it should not
bring the highest prices, it will pay better than the
less drouth resistant species which Western farmers
have hitherto tried to grow on the dry farm lands
of the Dakotas and Nebraska.

" Custom still fights the innovation of a new flour,
and there are people who think our bread is in danger
of being deteriorated by the new introduction; but
they are not the well-informed who have tasted the
full-flavored wheat breads of Spain or Italy, or who
realize the great and growing future of macaroni as
a food in this country. American-made macaroni,
prepared with the best of the old American wheats,
cannot be compared with the delicate products of a
Gragnano factory. But with the culture of this durum
wheat in America a change is coming, and the time
may come when we shall ship macaroni to Italy instead

80 FOOD MATERIALS

of importing it at the rate of nearly $2,000,000 a year.
This innovation in the great wheat industry has been
the result of the efforts of Mr. M. A. Carleton, who
was sent to Russia as an agricultural explorer of the
Office of Plant Introduction in 1898 and in 1900.
The office has distributed thousands of bushels of
the durum wheat varieties gathered by him from all the
Mediterranean and South Russian countries where it is
grown." ^

The importance of good flour can hardly be over-
estimated, since upon good bread depends the health
of the greater part of the human race in all temperate
climates.

This is not the place to discuss physiological ques-
tions, or to take part in the war of words over graham,
whole wheat, and fine flour. A discussion of the chem-
ical side of the question will be found in the Thesis
of Miss Charlotte A. Bragg, Technology Quarterly,
vol. Ill, No. 3, 1890, from which the following extract
is made :

'* The following tables give in a condensed form the
results of the analyses of the two samples of wheat, and
the products derived from them. A balance sheet was
deduced therefrom.

ST. LOUIS WINTER WHEAT

Water Phosphorus Nitrogen
Per cent Per cent Per cent

Whole Wheat 12.85 0.262 1.87
Royal Patent 13.37 0.051 1.39

iQur Plant Immigrants, by David Fairchild, in National Geo-
graphic Magazine, ApiQ, 1906.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 8 1

Water
Per cent

Phosphorus
Per cent

Nitrogen
Per cent

Extra Fancy

12.51

O.IOO

1.78

Low Grade

11.94

O.IOO

2.08

Middlings

II.2I

0.225

2.73

Bran

12.15

0.828

2.62

MINNESOTA SPRING WHEAT

Water
Per cent

Phosphorus
Per cent

Nitrogen
Per cent

Whole

11.09

0.230

2.24

Patent

12.29

0.050

2.10

Rakers'

12.14

0.091

2.40

Low Grade

11.47

0.192

2.59

Shorts

11.27

0.560

2.78

Bran

11.23

0.830

2.55

"The balance sheet defines the position of fine
white flour very clearly. It shows that hard spring
wheat gives a flour rich in nitrogen, 69.5 per cent of
the total being saved in the three grades of flour.
Winter wheat does not show quite as well ; not only
is there more bran, but it is richer in nitrogen. Nev-
ertheless, 62.2 per cent of the total nitrogen is saved.
There is, therefore, no need to eat whole wheat bread
in order to obtain a food rich in nitrogen.

"Quite another story is told by a study of the
proportion of phosphorus. The two varieties of wheat
more nearly approach each other, but the spring wheat
loses 79.6 per cent and the winter wheat 77.8 per cent
of its total phosphorus. Here, then, is the bone of
contention. The fine white flour is sadly deficient in
phosphorus, but is the phosphorus which is contained

82 FOOD MATERIALS

in the bran available for human food? According to
the latest experiments of Professors Voit and Riibner
in Munich, it would seem that not only is the bran
quite indigestible, but that by its irritating action it
causes a loss of both nitrogen and carbohydrates, which
would be available in its absence.

" It would seem, therefore, fair to conclude that the
bread made from fine flour, which is most tempting to
eyes and palate, may, after all, be the one best adapted
to the needs and conditions of the human system."

Since the amount of gluten in a flour often has an
interest for the housewife beyond that of nutritive value,
a means of estimating it is often called for.

Wiley (Agricultural Analysis, vol. Ill, p. 435) gives
the following as a method for separating crude gluten
from flour : Ten grams of flour (or one-half an ounce
may be taken) are well moistened with a nearly equal
weight of cool water (not over 60*^ F.), worked into a
ball, and allowed to stand an hour. It is then kneaded
in a stream of cold water until the starch and soluble
matter is removed. It may be weighed moist as a
rough comparison with other flours.

BUCKWHEAT

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) a native of Cen-
tral Asia, does not belong to the grasses or cereals, but
to the family Polygonacece^ which includes rhubarb and
dock. It grows as far north as 72*^, and thus stands
next to barley. It matures very quickly — in one hun-
dred days — and thrives on sandy soil. It is probably
a native of Asia, and is largely grown in temperate

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 83

countries. The seed, when stripped of its indigestible
husk, which composes about 20 per cent of it, is rich
in food material. It is often adulterated with cheaper
flour. Of 107 samples examined by Winton in 1900,
twenty-six contained wheat flour or middlings, nine
maize flour, and nine contained them both. The pre-
pared or self-raising buckwheats are usually mixtures
of flours with baking powder.

STARCHES, ETC.

The prepared starches are purified, so that they
contain little else than pure starch, and thus are not
capable of sustaining life by themselves. Starch may
be derived from the cereal grains mentioned before,
or from tubers or roots, as the potato, arrowroot, and
manihot or yucca, which yields farina and tapioca,
and from the stems of plants, as the sago palm.

Cornstarch is much used in the United States as an
article of diet. Farina is another name for a prepara-
tion from the starch of maize or wheat, which now
takes the place of the farina of manihot.

Genuine macaroni, spaghetti, and vermicelli are made
from wheat rich in gluten, and hence are nutritious, but
not more rich than some other wheat preparations.
Imitations are made from a less rich flour colored with
saffron or other yellow coloring matter.

Arrowroot is derived from plants of the genus
Marantay of the West India Islands and tropical
America, the chief species being M, arundinacea.
The earliest recorded notice of the plant, the knowl-
edge of which was obtained from South American

84

FOOD MATERIALS

Indians, refers to the supposed virtue possessed by
its roots as an antidote to poisoned arrows; and it
probably derives its name from this. Arrowroot was
introduced into England about the beginning of the
last century; but its use has been largely superseded
by that of cornstarch.

infants' and invalids' foods ^

Imperial Granum . . .
Ridge's Food ....
Mothers* Food . . .

Robinson's Barley . .
Horlick's Malted Milk
Lactated Food . . .
Mellin's Food ....
Nestl^'s Milk Food . .
Reid and Camrick's
Baby Food ....

Starch,

fiber,

etc.

76.60
72.01
69.24

78.66
15.68

47.72

35-34
34.54

Maltose.

49.00

• •

50-60

Lactose.

30.00

8.96

30.00

Cane
sugar.

3.00

• ••

8.00
Trace

• •

36.34
8-9

Wheat starch
Wheat starch
Com and wheat

starch
Barley starch

....
Wheat starch
Soluble dextrin
Wheat starch

These foods for infants and invalids need attention
on account of misrepresentations and the fact that physi-
cians ignorantly prescribe, or at least do not forbid the
use of, those which are far from what they profess to
be. Some of them are simply starchy mixtures, more
or less cooked, but not converted.

The milk foods are dried milk, usually too low in
fat, Nestle 's Food being the only exception.

Mellin's Food is the only food which does not con-
tain starch, but this is too low in fat and should be
given with cream.

1 McGill, Canadian Department of Inland Revenue, Bulletin 59.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS

85

Horlick's Malted Milk, Lactated Food, and Reid
and Carnrick's Baby Food are mixtures of which the
first has the least starch.

BREAD AND CRACKERS

Bread and crackers are so largely purchased that
attention should be given to clean manufacture. A
poster recently displayed showing a boy and girl hug-
ging in their arms several loaves of unwrapped bread,
some of which must fall to the ground before many
steps, illustrates the careless handling of cooked foods.
There is far more danger to health in this direction
than in the possible use of alum or ammonia by a few
bakers.

The light weight loaf, "proofed" to an excessive
size, furnishes less nutrition than the buyer supposes.

The cracker manufacturer needs to be watched as
to quality of ingredients and care in handling, especially
since his products are so largely used by children.

Composition of the Principal Cereal Grains Tabulated by

ViLLiER and Collin 1

Water

Nitrogenous substances . .

Fat

Sugar

Gum and dextrin ....

Starch

Cellulose

Ash

Wheat.

Barley.

Rye.

13-65

13-77

15.06

12.35

11. 14

11.52

1-75

2.16

1.79

1.45

1.56

0.95

2.38

1.70

4.86

64.08

61.67

62.00

2-53

5-31

2.01

1. 81

2.69

I.81

Oats.

12.37
10.41

5-32
1.91

1.79
54.08
II. 19

3.02

1 Leach, Food Inspection and Analysis, p. 212.

86

FOOD MATERIALS

Water

Nitrogenous substances .

Fat

Sugar

Gum and dextrin . . .

Starch

Cellulose

Ash

Rice.

13.II

7.85

0.88

16.52

0.63
1. 01

Com.

13.12
9.85
4.62
2.46

62.57
2.49
1.51

Millet.

11.66

9.25
350

65.95

7.29
2.3s

Badcwheat.

12.93

10.30

2.81

55.81

16.43
2.72

CHAPTER VI

SUGAR

THE word sugar y probably of Sanskrit origin, is
now used to designate a class of substances
possessing a sweet taste and capable of breaking up
into alcohol and carbon dioxide under the influence of
ferments, such as yeast.

Common sugar is called cane sugar, because it is
obtained principally from the sugar cane, a tall grass,
Saccharum officinarunty a native of Southern Asia.
It is the sweetest of all the sugars, and is technically
called sucrose. It has been known from the earliest
historic times. Some early writers spoke of it as
"honey made from reeds without bees.'*

According to Albertus Agnensis, as stated by
Muspratt, in the time of the Crusades sweet honeyed
canes were found in great quantity in the meadows
near Tripoli in Syria, which reeds were called zucra.
The plant was cultivated, and when ripe it was bruised
in mortars, the strained juice set by in vessels "till
concreted in the form of snow, or white salt ; this, when
scraped, they mix with bread, or rub it in water and
take it as pottage, and it is to them more wholesome
and pleasing than the honey of bees.""

The sucrose of commerce is also obtained from the
beet, the palm, and the maple tree, and from another
grass. Sorghum saccharatutn,

87

88 FOOD MATERIALS

The sugar cane contains about i8 per cent of
sugar. The canes are crushed and passed through
powerful presses. The juice is boiled in vacuum pans
with a little milk of lime, added to neutralize the
acids which the juice contains ; this forms a scum,
which is taken off. After the boiling has concen-
trated the juice sufficiently, it is run into a large
vessel to crystallize.

The mass of crystals formed is drained from the
syrup, and is known as raw or muscovado sugar.
The non-crystallized portion is known as molasses.

This boiling down in vacuum pans has deprived
the housewife of the old-fashioned West India or New
Orleans molasses, with which she made such delicious
gingerbread, which even ''mother'* can no longer pre-
pare. The acid molasses produced by the slow evapo-
ration of the sugar cane juice in open pans is to be
found only rarely and in small quantity on the market.
In 1903-04 only 27,964,292 gallons of molasses were
produced in the United States as against 37,000,000
gallons in 1902-03.

The grades of sugar also have changed very much.
The dark brown sugars have almost disappeared from
the market. This is owing to the improved methods
of boiling. The granulated is of the same quality as
loaf sugar, only the syrup is stirred while crystallizing,
so that the crystals do not cohere. The light brown
sugars are the next product, containing some molasses,
and therefore they taste sweeter, since the flavor is
more pronounced in the colored portion of the juice.

If the granulated sugar is not quite freed from the

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 89

syrup, it tastes more decidedly sweet than if it is per-
fectly pure. That is, it has more the taste which we
are accustomed to associate with sugar.

It is often said that powdered sugar must be adul-
terated, because it does not sweeten as much as loaf
sugar ; but such is not the case, and some explanation
must be sought. The reason seems to be twofold:
first, a spoonful of powdered sugar does not weigh as
much as a spoonful of granulated ; second, since sweet-
ness is a physical property, the finely divided condition
of the sugar has something to do with it. The coarser
grains seem to excite in the nerves of taste a stronger
vibration, so to speak, in dissolving than do the fine
particles. To prove this, equal weights of loaf, of gran-
ulated of different degrees of fineness, of powdered,
and of coffee-crushed sugar were dissolved in equal
volumes of water and then tested by various persons,
the tumblers containing the solutions being numbered,
so that the taster was an unbiased judge. Some pure
honey was added to the list, and the results confirmed
the previous suspicions that the taste was not due to the
chemical purity of the substance. In every case the
coffee sugar was pronounced the sweetest, and that of
the solution of honey the least sweet. As to the solu-
tions of the other sugars, which were all pure sucrose,
judgments varied, showing that the sensation of sweet-
ness is not owing solely to the presence of a certain
amount of sucrose.

That beet root contained a sugar identical with that
obtained from the sugar cane was first made known
by Margraf in 1747. But the beet was not cultivated

90 FOOD MATERIALS

for the purpose to any extent until the middle of the
last century. Under the protection of Napoleon I., the
industry gradually gained ground. A prize of a mil-
lion francs was offered for the successful manufacture
of sugar from plants of home growth. As late as 1 860
the fate of beet sugar was doubtful, since the disagree-
able flavor of the molasses still clung to the crystallized
sugar. But applied science has overcome all the diffi-
culties. The purest loaf sugar is now made from beets,
and there is produced one and one-half times as much
beet sugar as cane sugar. The total amount of beet
sugar produced in 1840 was 50,000 long tons. The
total amount of cane sugar produced in 1840 was
1,100,000 long tons. The ^otal amount of beet sugar
produced in 1905 was 6,990,000 long tons. The total
amount of cane sugar produced in 1905 was 4,908,000
long tons.

The culture of the beet has spread throughout
Germany and Russia. It has been tried in England,
Ireland, and the Northern United States, and is prov-
ing a source of profit in many latitudes where the
sugar cane will not thrive. Beets contain up to 10 or
12 per cent of sugar. In Belgium and France they
extract about 7 per cent, and in Germany 8 or 9
per cent. The process of manufacture differs little
from that of cane sugar. The molasses from beet
sugar is mostly sent to the distillery, as it has a very
disagreeable taste.

In parts of the United States and in Canada sugar
is made from the sap of the maple, Acer sacckarinuniy
and other allied species. The sugar is cane sugar, or

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 9 1

sucrose, and the accompanying substances in the sap
give an agreeable flavor quite peculiar to maple sugar.
Several million pounds are annually produced.

The cultivation of the Chinese sugar grass, or sugar
millet {Sorghum saccharatum), has been attempted in
the United States, with some success. It seems to be
suited to a warm temperate zone, and thus is inter-
mediate between the northern maple and beet and the
tropical sugar cane. It is used largely for fodder,
however.

The term sugar, as used today, is a very general one
covering a wide range of substances, the number of
which is constantly growing by virtue of chemical
research.

The housewife has to do with two of the great
groups :

1. The monosaccharids (CgHi20g), or glucoses.
At least fifteen are named, to which belong grape
sugar (dextrose), crystallizable ; fruit sugar (levulose),
non-crystallizable ; and invert sugar, a mixture of the
two (made from the sucroses by boiling with acid).

2. The disaccharids (C12H22O11), or sucroses. To
this class belong cane sugar, or sucrose, beet sugar,
maple sugar, malt sugar (maltose), and milk sugar, or
lactose.

The sugars are often divided into reducing (those
which reduce copper from copper sulphate), maltose,
lactose, invert sugar, dextrose, levulose ; and nonreduc-
ingy as cane sugar, beet sugar, maple sugar.

Starch is a polysaccharid, along with cellulose, dex-
trin, glycogen, and pectin. It can be considered as

92 FOOD MATERIALS

an aggregation of lOO groups derived from dextrose,
CgHjgOg (lOO CgHj^Og), by the removal of water from
each during plant growth. These water molecules may
be replaced and sugar again formed by treating with
acid (artificial or unnatural) or by the action of an
enzyme, as diastase, the natural ferment found in barley
in abundance.

In the acid hydrolysis the starch breaks up grad-
ually into maltose, a dextrin, and dextrose. In the
enzyme treatment only the first two result as a rule.

Much confusion is caused by the loose way in which
the term "glucose" is commonly used. Formerly it
was the designation of all the manufactured products,
whether solid or viscous, but of late the term " starch
sugar," or dextrose, covers the solid sugars and glucose
means the syrup form, from the Greek glukusy meaning
sweet.

While all kinds of starch, and even cellulose, will
yield starch sugar when treated (hydrolyzed) with acid,
corn is the chief source. The grain is soaked in huge
vats, holding some 2,500 bushels, in warm water for
several days. Sulphur dioxide is added to sterilize
and to soften the hulls. The grain is then ground, and
the starch is washed through bolting cloth sieves and
allowed to settle. If it is desired to save the germ,
a first coarse grinding allows it to float away and a
second finer grinding sets free the starch grains.

The collected starch, mixed with water to a creamy
consistency, is run into copper boilers with about six
pounds of hydrochloric acid to each 10,000 pounds of
starch. It is heated under pressure of some thirty

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 93

pounds and drawn off, decolorized, and refined in much
the same manner as the juice of the sugar cane.

The demand for starch sugar for candies and jellies,
and of glucose for syrups, has caused an enormous
production in this country, irrespective of its use in
beers.

Confectionery is usually preferred in a soft or
amorphous condition ; rock candy or crystallized sugar
is rarely called for. It is for this reason that sugar for
making candy is inverted, or changed into reducing
sugar (mixture of dextrose, or grape sugar, and levu-
lose or fruit sugar), by boiling with some acid, usually
cream of tartar or tartaric acid.

The "fondant** of chocolate creams and bonbons
may be made in this way. Gums and starch pastes,
even clay, may be used to dilute the crystals of sugar
and keep the mass agreeably soft, but commercial glu-
cose is easier to work, healthful, cheap, and pure,
therefore is largely used in modern candy making.
The pastes and cheap gum drops are made of starch,
paste, and glucose. Marshmallows have gelatin added.

It requires two and one-half times as much glucose
as cane sugar to sweeten the same volume of water.
This may partly explain the increasing pounds of candy
consumed.

Grape sugar is present in the sacs of flowers, and
is the source of honey. It can be readily obtained from
grapes by expressing the juice, and after neutralization
of the acids the syrup may be refined and crystallized
as in the case of beet sugar, but it crystallizes with
difficulty and is apt to take on water and become moist.

94

FOOD MATERIALS

It is accompanied by the non-crystallizable sugar, lev-
ulose. Grape sugar made from grapes is too costly
for ordinary use. In jellies and preserved fruits a
large portion of the cane sugar, or sucrose, is changed
into glucose during the heating with the acid juice
of the fruit.

The following table ^ shows the proportion of sugars
and acid in various fruits :

Apricots ....
Pineapples . . .
English cherries
Lemons ....

Figs

Strawberries . .
Raspberries . .
Gooseberries . .
Oranges ....
Peaches (green) .
Pears (Madeleine)
Apples ....
Apples ....

Prunes

Grapes (hothouse)
Grapes (green) .

Cane sugar.

6.04

0.00
0.41
0.00

^•33
2.01

0.00

4.22

0.92

0.36

5.28

2.19

5-24
0.00

0.00

Reducing
sugar.

Acid.

2.74
1.98

10.00
1.06

11.55
4.98
5.22
6.40

4-36
1.07
8.42
8.72

5-45

2.43
17.26

1.60

1.864
0.547
0.661
4.706
0.057
0.550
1.380

1-574
0.448

3.900

0.1 15

1. 148

0.633

1.288

0-345
2.485

Not only may sucrose be converted, but all woody
fiber or cellulose can be acted upon by acids so as to
form glucose ; hence any woody substance, as sawdust,
cotton, etc, can be converted into glucose; but this
is not done for the purpose of sugar manufacture,
since corn meal is much more available. Such waste
product may be used for spirits.

1 Buignet (Ann. Chim. Phys., 59, p. 233), taken from Leach, p. 462.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 95

Milk sugar, or lactose {Ci2^2!fin ^2^)9 ^^ prepared
from skim milk, a waste product of the dairies. The
sugar of milk is a valuable product for use in the prepa-
ration of modified milk for infants ; in medicine it is of
importance as an excipient, or vehicle for active remedies ;
and in certain diseases it is a valuable nutrient.

There is little probability that the use of milk sugar
will ever become as universal as that of the other forms
of sugar, for the price, from twenty to forty cents a
pound, is prohibitive.

The chief adulterants to be looked for in milk sugar
are grape sugar and cane sugar.

HONEY

The United States produces the most honey, the
annual production as reported in 1900 being 61,196,160
pounds.

It is said, especially by English analysts, that much
American honey is entirely artificial, that the comb is
made of paraffin and filled with glucose syrup. Two
simple tests will show whether this is the case. Normal
honey, being collected, by the bees from flowers, will
contain many pollen grains. The absence of these is
a suspicious circumstance. Beeswax is blackened by
warm sulphuric acid, while paraffin is not affected.

The most common adulterants of honey are cane
sugar and commercial glucose. Gelatin is also found.
Sometimes bees are fed on cane sugar or glucose, which
is placed near the hives. In such a case they may
supply the adulterants.

The presence of the comb in honey is by no means

96 FOOD MATERIALS

a proof of genuineness. In at least one sample the
Massachusetts State Board of Health found pieces of
artificial comb and a dead bee in a mixture of glucose
and cane sugar.

In the Bulletin of the New Hampshire Board for
July, 1906, a table is given showing that out of thirteen
samples examined, only seven were of legal quality.

ADULTERATION

The adulteration of sugar may be considered under
three heads. First, the addition of insoluble substances,
such as marble dust, which is sometimes found adver-
tised among the supplies of confectioners. It is said
that sand used to be added. Second, the foreign sub-
stances left in from the process of manufacture, such
as ultramarine, to give the requisite blue color. If tin
were ever found in sugar, it would be in this list.
Third, and most frequent at present, is the addition
of glucose, or corn sugar, which is much cheaper, but
is less sweet, partly on account of its lesser solubility
in water. One quart of water dissolves three pounds
of cane sugar, but only one or one and a half pounds of
grape sugar.

Sugar may be so manipulated in refining as to be
white and crystalline, and yet contain quite a percent-
age of moisture and syrup. Such sugar cakes together
on standing. The presence of this moisture may be
regarded as an adulteration. «

The adulteration of the granulated and powdered
sugars, at least those sold in the Eastern States, is
not as extensive as has been supposed. Of the sam-

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 9/

pies examined by the writer in 1879, ^^^ ^^^ ^^
seventy-three samples from Massachusetts, not one
of five from New York, and only one of twelve
from Chicago was adulterated.

Today (1906) granulated sugar is probably the
purest food product on the market.

Syrups, on the contrary, are very liable to be not
what they seem. Dr. Kedzie, of Michigan, in 1879
found only one out of twenty-one genuine.

The Kansas Board of Health, in its Bulletin for
June, 1906, states the percentage of adulteration in
maple sugar and syrup as 95.8.

The July Bulletin from New Hampshire, the home
of the sugar maple, gives only twenty-one samples of
legal quality out of forty-one examined.

The usual adulterants of maple syrup are golden or
drip syrup, commercial glucose, molasses, and refined
sugar.

The ordinary table syrup is chiefly glucose or corn
syrup.

CANDY

The enormous extension of the candy trade demands
attention both from the hygienic and the economic point
of view. Some years ago Professor Simon N. Patten
warned us that we were being eliminated on a sugar
diet — women particularly. With the best granulated
sugar at say six cents a pound, and commercial glucose
at about half that price, the sale of candies at forty to
eighty cents means large profits, which are to a great
extent used up in fancy boxes, high rents, and expert

98 FOOD MATERIALS

service, so that even at fifteen cents a pound it is pos-
sible to sell candies where other expenses are low.
A large part of the tons of candy purchased by the
young people of our towns is glucose more or less
bleached by bisulphite of soda. Commercial glucose
of the unrefined sort as it comes from the factory to
be used, in beer, for instance, has a yellow cast, and
would not sell so readily ; hence the bleaching. Glu-
cose itself is a good food, but the sulphites are not
exactly wholesome.

The fancy for brilliant colors in food finds full play
in candies. Some 200 coloring substances are named
in the National Confectioners' Association list, of which
about one-third are recognized as harmful. Mineral
colors, such as lead chromate (yellow), formerly fre-
quent, are rarely seen. Coal tar dyes, from their
intense coloring power, are generally used. The
quantity taken at any one time is almost infinitesimal.

Cheap candies are sometimes stuffed with starch,
paste, and paraffin, and the fats used are of doubtful
sources. ** Brandy drops*' containing fusel oil and
alcohol ought to be driven from the market.

In 1900 thirty-one out of seventy-eight samples of
confectionery examined in Massachusetts were adul-
terated. Chocolate brandy drops gave in some cases
more than 4 per cent of alcohol.

The Inland Revenue Department, Ottawa, Canada,
reports the following results of an examination of highly
colored confectionery, samples having been collected
during two months : Out of fifty-six samples examined
thirty-four contained two colors, twenty contained three

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 99

colors, and two contained four colors. In but one sam-
ple was the presence of arsenic shown, and that in such
minute quantity as to be completely harmless.

USES OF SUGAR

In Europe it was used only in medicine until about
the fifteenth century, and it was not produced in large
quantities till about 1800. Only within a few genera-
tions has sugar been used as a food, and produced in
sufficient quantities to bring the price within the reach
of all classes of people. The consumption of sugar is
everywhere increasing. In 1899 ^^^ ^^^^1 consumption
was from seven to eight million tons. In 1904 it was
from eleven to twelve million. In the United States
alone it was nearly three million, having increased from
eight pounds a head in 1825 to 75.3 pounds in 1904.

Until recently, taking the world as a whole, it might
be said that sugar was used as a condiment rather than
as a food, but at present it seems a very important
article of diet, and should be so considered. It would
seem that in the north it is taking the place of the
starchy foods that sometimes can be obtained only with
great difficulty. It is known that the consumption of
sugar is large among American farmers and lumbermen.
In Switzerland loaf sugar and very sweet chocolate are
important elements in the outfits of mountain climbers,
and on all polar expeditions sugar is considered an
essential. Undoubtedly it is an invaluable as well as
an agreeable food for these dwellers in the open air.

Professor Pfluger is quoted as saying that without
doubt the sugar in the blood is heavily drawn on during

100 FOOD MATERIALS

violent exercise ; hence the longing for it in a form
that can be readily assimilated.

In Mrs. Abel's Bulletin, ** Sugar as Food,"^ may be
found exceedingly interesting accounts of experiments
by Mosso and Dr. Schumberg in lessening fatigue by
means of cane sugar. A short quotation is in place
here : " In effect Dr. Schumberg says, * The practical
conclusion to be drawn is that sugar in small doses is
well adapted to help men to perform extraordinary mus-
cular labor.' He advises practical tests of his results
on a large scale, in which small amounts of sugar in
some refreshing drink, as lemonade, will be given to
men fifteen or twenty minutes before they begin a
piece of very hard work or at the first signs of exhaus-
tion. If the sugar is to be taken in solid form he
recommends chocolate as the best medium. The appli-
cation of these results to the food of soldiers who may
be called upon for extraordinary exertion in marching
or fighting is very evident."^

In warm countries, where little fat is eaten, sugar
as it is found in fruits forms a large portion of the food.
It is said that in India the workmen must have each
day a large amount of food that is well seasoned with
sugar. ^ In all tropical lands the natives live largely on
dates, figs, and other fruits that have a high percentage
of sugar.

The growing opinion seems to be in favor of its
moderate use. It is true that if the stomach is not
able to digest it at once it is liable to change into lactic
acid instead of being absorbed into the system. This

1 Farmers* Bulletin No. 93.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 01

only shows that sugar is not suitable for that individual
at that time. The very general craving for sweets is
undoubtedly founded on a law of demand of the system.
Hence a moderate use of it by children is not to be
rashly condemned. Like all other foods, sugar may
be abused. That it plays a part as a heat-giving food
is indicated by the fact that it is not craved to so great
an extent in summer as in winter.

CHAPTER VII

NUTS

ONE class of food material worthy of further study
from various standpoints has recently come into
prominence. *' Nuts as Food " ^ is the title of one of the
excellent Farmers' Bulletins.

Certain facts about these products have been known
without attaching due significance to them.

The plebeian peanut has been rescued from the
upper gallery, and as "butter" has found its way to
the most exclusive afternoon tea, as well as to the
vegetarian bill of fare, and as ''brittle" is a favorite
candy. The pine nut, supposed to be a last resort of
the starving Indian, is now imported and deprived
of its content of turpentine for the delicate feast of
devotees of uncooked foods.

Nut cakes, nut salads, nut ice cream, etc, all show
the new direction in which public taste is tending.

These nuts are quite different from the most promi-
nent variety of forty years ago, which was the cocoanut.
This is today less frequently seen in our markets, being
prepared nearer the place of production. Pecans are,
for the time, the most abundant, and are worthy of the
favor given them.

The composition of nuts is given as follows :

^ Maine Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 54.

102

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS

103

Brazil nut

Pignolia

Filbert

Hickory nut

English walnut (California

bijou) f . .

X ccan •••••••••

Almond (California) . . .
Peanut . . ,

Roasted

Chestnut (average) ....

Portion.

1

^

1

•

2

•

>«

M

i

^

^

£

**

a

Per

Per

Per

Per

Per

Per

cent.

cent.

cent.

cent.

pound.

cent.

1*3

17.0

66.8

7.0

3.329

49.6

6.4

33-9

49.4

6.9

2,842

• •

3-7

15.6

65-3

13.0

3.432

52.1

3-7

15.4

67.4

1 1.4

3.495

62.2

2.5

18.4

64.4

13.0

3.305

73-1

2.7

9.6

70.5

15.3

3.566

46.3

4.8

21.0

54.9

17-3

3.030

45.0

1.6

305

49.2

16.2

2.955
3.177

Av.
28.0

42.7

6.5

6.3

431

1,188

16.0

e
9

a
i

10

o
O

Cents.
12

15
9

15
15
15

7.3-

14.6

8.4

A glance at this table will show the high food value
of nuts, and will explain why they may take the place of
meat in the dietary.

Since nuts belong to the class of foods that are
put up to keep, that is, with little water, they may be
transported and used months after ripening.

They are not as yet liable to adulteration, and their
quality is evident to the experienced buyer.

The United States furnishes a great variety of nuts,
and the few not grown here are imported in quantity,
Brazil nuts and filberts forming the bulk of the latter
class.

The Brazil, or Para, nut grows on a large tree found
in the Amazon forests (Bertholletia excelsa). It is
sometimes incorrectly called castanea nut.

The filbert, or hazel nut (Corylus tubulosa L,) is

104 FOOD MATERIALS

more used in Europe than in America, both for the
table and for oil, of which it contains a surprising
amount for so dry a nut.

Pignolias, the seeds of pine, are increasing in favor,
particularly the Egyptian varieties, although several
excellent varieties of pine nuts are grown in the
southwest.

The pecan is a tree native to the United States
(Hicoria pecan)^ growing from Iowa to Texas, where
the greater proportion is raised. Its thin shell, being
easily removed, makes it a great favorite.

The English walnut {Juglans regia L,) is an Asiatic
tree introduced into England in the middle of the
sixteenth century. It is now most successfully grown
in California, the 1898 crop being estimated at eight
million pounds. The black walnut and butternut are
seldom found on the market, although both furnish
edible nuts.

The chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) is a well-bal-
anced food material, and the tree grows in most temper-
ate lands. This nut furnishes a staple article of die^"
for the poorer classes along the Mediterranean, being
made into puddings, cakes, and bread. Flour or meal
made from it might easily replace many other meals in
the diet.

The cocoanut palm {Cocos nucifera L.) furnishes
food, oil, fiber, and adulterating material, especially for
ground spices. Various preparations of the oil have
been introduced as lard substitutes.

The pistachio tree {Pistacia vera Z.) is said to have
been cultivated in Egypt in the time of Joseph, and is
now found mostly along the borders of the Mediter-

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 10$

ranean. Other nuts, such as almonds, are sometimes
dyed with coal tar dyes to imitate pistachios.

The almond is not a nut, properly speaking, but a
drupe, or stone. The almond tree (JPrunus amygdalus
Stokes) is supposed to be a native of Turkestan and
closely related to the peach. It is now naturalized in
California. The table variety is the sweet or paper-
shell. Variety amara furnishes the oil of bitter
almonds. Other stones are not commonly substituted.

The peanut (Arachis hypogaa L,) is probably a na-
tive of Brazil, but is grown in nearly all temperate and
subtropic regions. It is not a true nut, but grows in
a pod on vines, and is one of a small group of legumes
which bend the flower stalk until the young fruit is
buried in the soil to ripen there. The American crop
is four million bushels or more, about one-seventh of
the world's product. In Europe the oil is used instead
of olive oil for a salad oil, and makes an excellent
substitute.

The olive {Olea Europaa) has been grown in Cali-
fornia only from the time of the early Mission fathers,
but has attained the proportions of a profitable industry.
Some seventy varieties are g^own in the State. Olives
are sometimes partly dried before crushing in the old-
fashioned stone mills for the extraction of the oil. The
watery product is allowed to stand for perhaps a month
and the clear oil is decanted. This process is claimed
to give a delicacy of flavor which the filtered oils lack.
The g^een olives gave on analysis 13 per cent of fat,
while the ripe fruit gave 25.5. The oil may be eaten
with bread instead of butter.

Today "salad oil" is derived from many sources

I06 FOOD MATERIALS

besides the olive. Cotton seed oil and corn oil are
most frequently used, but other seed oils and peanut oil
are found in European samples. The label in more or
less correct Italian does not prove the contents of a
bottle to have come from the sunny land. At pres-
ent a great deal of the salad oil has never crossed the
seas, but is known to the dealers for what it is, cotton
seed oil. The oil is pressed out from the cotton seeds
by powerful presses and makes a very clear, sweet oil,
just as wholesome, for aught any one knows, as the
oil pressed from the olive, and for home use it is cer-
tainly much cheaper. The trouble with the sale of it is,
like that of oleomargarine, that it is sold under false
pretences and for an exorbitant price.

In America the cereals are grown so freely and are
prepared by machinery so easily that nuts cannot com-
pete in price ; but there are compensations, since nuts
may be used without cooking, and also since the fat
they contain makes them a more valuable food.

In comparing the cost of nuts with the cost of
cereals, the difference in food values must not be lost
sight of. Cereals are largely starch. Nuts in general
are rich in fat, and therefore pound for pound have
approximately twice the food value. The content in
proteid of nuts is also higher as a rule than in cereals,
and in the peanut more than twice as much. The
proteid of nuts seems to be in a very digestible and
utilizable form. It should be remembered that nuts
are the form of food best suited to replace meat. This
is made clear from the comparison in the table. The
price should, therefore, be compared with that of meat
rather than with that of cereals.

CHAPTER VIII

PERISHABLE FOODS MEAT, POULTRY, FISH

TVTEAT is a form of food which requires very little
-*-^-'- expenditure of force for its assimilation, since
that work was done by the animal when living, and
man avails himself of it. Rightly used, it forms a val-
uable addition to man's diet. The consumption of meat
has steadily increased in spite of the increase in price,
which in England is said to have risen 35 per cent in
the last twenty-two years. The amount consumed each
day varies from one-tenth of a pound to two pounds
a head.

Since meat contains 40 to 50 per cent of water and
moisture is the prime requisite for the development of
bacteria, it is readily seen that meat is nearly as perish-
able as milk, which has only 10 to 15 per cent more of
water.

Butcher's meat as it has been obtained in small
communities was the last food to be suspected. But,
as in the case of milk, the concentration of population
on small areas has necessitated the transportation of
raw or frozen meat and poultry long distances, and the
keeping of large quantities for weeks or months. Peo-
ple insist on living so crowded together and have devel-
oped such an insatiable appetite for meat that the local
abattoirs are unable to supply the demand, and a large

107

I08 FOOD MATERIALS

part of any meat supply, even in the country, comes
from the great packing houses of the Middle West.

Recourse must be had to the wild lands of the semi-
arid regions for ranches, and large packing houses must
be placed within reach of the ranches in order to save
the transportation of so much live weight ; for an animal
when dressed shrinks to less than half its weight, and
of this no more than one-half goes as meat to the city
markets.

The various reports on the packing houses and the
discussions of them in the papers have brought the ques-
tion so vividly before the country at large that there is
no need of repeating it here.

It is the demand for meat and the necessity for its
long transportation, together with an unwillingness to
pay the price of cleanliness (as in the case of milk),
which has led to abuses now in a fair way to be
remedied.

There is danger, however, of the public relying on
the crusade against unclean methods of packing to give
a safe product on the table.

Perishable foods must be guarded from start to
finish if they are to be eaten with safety. The meat
must be kept clean from the time it leaves the packing
house until it reaches our tables. The retail meat
dealer should have means to keep uncontaminated the
stock of meat that he gets from the wholesale dealer.

In the few cities where public-spirited women have
looked into the markets there have been revealed low
standards of sanitation as bad as anything published
about the packing houses.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS IO9

Another danger is from the exposure of meats in
warm weather to flies. In spite of cook books, meat
from the open market ought to be washed (not soaked,
but washed clean), and then dried with a cloth. But
if the meat is kept under cover on a counter the storage
place must be ventilated, since decay sets in sooner in
the warmer, close air.

In cleaning meat, all creases and flaps should be
carefully looked to and clots of blood removed, for such
harbor the organisms of decay. In institutions, board-
ing houses, and kitchens where much work goes on the
tendency is to neglect such matters.

One precaution must be given : Such washed meat
should be put at once into the pot or oven, since a
watery surface that favors bacterial action is substituted
for the dried film of the long exposed surface. A case
of severe illness known to the author was undoubtedly
caused by the washing of pieces of fowl for fricassee the
night before they were cooked and leaving them packed
in a mass.

Protection against diseased meats we must leave to
the inspectors, for this should be done at the time of
killing, or again in the large markets. In this matter
the people should be protected from the greed of any
dealer as well as from accidental overlooking of cases.

Cooked meats exposed for sale should be always
kept from flies, since such are not washed before eating.

The housewife's duty is concerned not so much with
the packing house, but rather with the whole period,
from the time when the meat leaves the cold storage
and is exposed for sale till it reaches her own refrigera-
tors and cooking vessels and is served on her table.

no FOOD MATERIALS

In the market she can insist upon cleanliness in
handling, can agitate the matter of hot water for clean-
ing the hands, can see that non-absorbent paper is
always used, that there is a quick removal of all waste,
and the shortest possible exposure of raw surfaces.

If the slaughter house were as aseptic as a hospital
operating room, and if the meat were placed in the
refrigerator car in a perfect condition, it would not,
with present careless and ignorant habits, come to our
tables in a fresh condition. Some change goes on dur-
ing the long journey even in the cold. The warm,
dusty air of the meat market where it is exposed for
sale, the dirty hands coming in contact with it in a
dozen ways before it reaches the consumer's kitchen,
the woeful lack of cleanliness in most kitchens (I say
"most " advisedly from a bacterial standpoint), account
for the many cases of ptomaine poisoning that we
read of.

It is much to be desired that Farmers' Institutes
should take up the matter of hot water and clean hands
in reference to the whole question of clean and safe
food. As was said in regard to milk, the old-time
care of the farmer's wife has been replaced in too
many cases by ignorant "help," who innocently allow
many unsanitary practices which a little teaching would
correct.

It is fortunate that the odor of putrefaction is so
pronounced that a cultivated sense of smell may detect
danger. Custom has sanctioned so "high" a flavor,
however, that poultry especially is frequently set before
one in an evident state of decomposition. Some of the

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS III

worst cases of ptomaine poisoning on record have been
caused by eating soup made from such fowls. These
toxic substances are not destroyed by heat and are
soluble, so that while the meat itself may frequently
be eaten with impunity, the broth causes illness.

The sale of poultry is becoming a matter of strict
legislation. Authorities differ, as usual, regarding the
comparative danger from the easy access of bacteria to
drawn poultry, or from the decomposition of the undrawn
entrails.

" Ordinarily poultry will remain sweet for a week or
more in a temperature of 50° F., but if it is to be kept
longer it must, be stored in a dry place at a temperature
no higher than 34° F. In such cold storage it will
keep almost indefinitely." ^

It is to be feared that advantage has sometimes been
taken of this fact to keep poultry ** almost indefinitely.'*

If drawn carelessly, bits of liver or lungs are left
and easily decay, and parts become infected by unclean
hands, and slow decomposition goes on to burst into
flame, as it were, while the article is in transit to the
consumer. The Southern practice of killing as needed
has much to recommend it from this point of view.

There is a certain risk of rapid decomposition of
cold storage meats in hot weather which may be avoided
by the use of superficial preservatives. If the meat was
properly washed this would do no great harm, but too
many cooks do not clean the surface sufficiently.

Cured meats, salted, smoked, and dried, should, of
course, be prepared from sound material. The fre-

1 Fanners' Bulletin No. 180.

112 FOOD MATERIALS

quency with which bad tongue and corned beef are
found leads to the conclusion that local butchers
are careless. There is a temptation to put into the
brine for corned beef meat that is too far gone to sell
otherwise.

Meats once decayed cannot be made fit for human
food by any process. To find out that they are spoiled
is the cook's province before they go into the pot.

Sausages readily lend themselves both to filling and
preserving. In fact, a bright-colored meat is always
to be suspected.

Some preservatives, notably sulphites, prevent the
odor and appearance of decay but permit a softening
and deterioration of the fiber; others applied to meat
already in process of decay may retard the exterior
changes sufficiently to prevent a decided odor and
leave the interior in an unfit condition.

The great danger of these toxic products of meat
decay may well make it a crime to place on the market
cuts with a possible taint.

The same general remarks apply to game and fish.
There must be freshness and care in handling and
cleaning before cooking, and an examination for spots
already in process of decay.

If salted and cured fish are always soaked before
preparing for the table, any borax or other preservative
that may have been used will be washed off.

A word may be welcome on the much discussed
subject of oysters and clams.

It seems incredible that any one would even consider
fattening oysters under the mouths of sewers or digging

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS II 3

clams on a bank washed daily by the diluted sewage
of a city ; yet such is the practice. It is only another
case of indifference on the part of the public to what
is going on under its eyes. The only safe oyster or
clam is one known by the purchaser to have been raised
and prepared for market in water free from sewage.
If one fears preservatives in barreled oysters, they may
be washed and the liquid thrown away.

The best remedy for the condition of the meat
market, as well as of the other markets, is to include
in all public school education lessons in marketing and
the appearance of fresh, untainted, untreated goods,
to inculcate an independence which means a self-
protection.

The constant cry for legal protection is a confession
of weakness, of indolence, and of lack of fiber to win
a way for one's self, which argues ill for the future of
the republic. Food is an important element in effect-
ive life which should be studied, and to whose safe
purchase and wholesome preparation time should be
given unstintingly.

Clean markets mean a higher price for products, but
the public will support the endeavor just as soon as it is
convinced of the necessity and increased value of the
materials. Glass cases are now commonly used in
the department stores, and thus an effort is made
to eliminate some sources of danger present in the
markets.

CHAPTER IX

PERISHABLE FOODS VEGETABLES AND FRUITS

VEGETABLES are usually understood to include
certain roots and tubers, as the potato, sweet
potato, turnip, onion, carrot, parsnip, and beet, with
some fruits, as the tomato, squash, and cucumber.
These are used in the fresh condition, and are not
subject to adulteration. They are largely composed
of water, 75 to 95 per cent. The small nutritive value
which they possess is due to the starch and sugar, and
not to the nitrogenous material, which is present in
small quantity only. The percentage of "ash** is
higher than in cereals, and contains more potassium
salts.

When much salted meat is eaten, fruit and vegeta-
bles are very essential correctives of diet on account
of the acid and possibly on account of the potassium
salts, which are supposed to replace the excess of
sodium salts taken with the meat.

The common vegetables, onions, carrots, parsnips,
etc, need not be discussed save to emphasize the neces-
sity of cleaning them, and the value of the special
substance contained in the diet. They form a large
part of the ready diets of the various countries.

Greens, spinach, asparagus, lettuce, celery, and the
like, are to be watched for contamination from soil
fertilizers and unclean handling. Peas and beans, if

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS II 5

purchased shelled, should be washed for the same
reasons.

An illustration of possible dangers in the use of
uncooked vegetables is found in the prevalence of hook
worm disease in Panama, where, owing to the fertilizing
with night soil of the ground in which lettuce is grown,
the lettuce, after being washed in cold water, must be
plunged into hot water and then cooled on ice. In
Manila special cleaning of vegetables is needed on
account of the dysentery amoeba. Many mysterious
cases of disease doubtless arise from eating imperfectly
cleaned green foods.

All vegetables which grow in or in contact with the
ground, especially today, when spraying with poison is
so widely resorted to, should be thoroughly cleaned
before cooking. For the same reason currants, goose-
berries, and grapes should be washed before eating
raw. In short, here, as everywhere, cleanliness is the
watchword.

There is little danger in the use of vegetables and
fruits as food if they are fresh, not wilted, and are fully
grown or ripened. They add a certain bulk to the
meal which seems to favor digestion.

The seeds of the Leguminosce^ peas, beans, and
lentils, may be called meat substitutes, since they
contain about 25 per cent of nitrogenous substance,
12 per cent of water, and 50 per cent of starch.
As dried seeds they should stand next in importance
to the cereals ; but since beans and peas especially are
eaten green, as vegetables, even more than in the dried
state, they cannot be omitted in this list.

Il6 FOOD MATERIALS

This form of food is not sufficiently appreciated,
especially by working people. It should be eaten with
starch or fat foods. Hence the New England dish of
baked beans with pork was a perfectly suitable and
well-proportioned food for people whose life was spent
largely in the open air in arduous pioneer work. The
nutritious seeds are less easily digested than the cereals.
The "ash " contains more lime and less phosphates.

The vegetarian and some subtropical peoples obtain
their proteid food largely from these foods. The fri-
joles of the Mexican, the soy bean of the Chinese and
Japanese, the lentil of Egypt, and the various European
varieties furnish a large portion of mankind with an
inexpensive substitute for meat.

The soy, or soja, bean (Glycine hispida or Soja
hispidd) has several varieties, all native of the East.
It is being introduced quite extensively into the United
States. It contains a high per cent of proteid, and the
carbohydrate seems to be different from the other
beans. It furnishes the best source of diabetic food,
since starch is entirely absent.

FRUITS

Fruits, so called — apple, pear, grape, peach, orange,
etc. — contain sugar, instead of the starch of the vege-;
table, and also an acid which gives a pleasant relish and
is a stimulant to the appetite. The general composition
of fruits may be stated at 85 per cent water, 8 per cent
sugar, and i per cent acid.

The ripening of fruits is a chemical change of the
more solid, gummy, or starchy substances to the soluble

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 11/

sugars dissolved in the water juices, for fruits are even
higher in water content than milk. The delicate skin
of many fruits is readily punctured and access is made
easy for micro-organisms always lying in wait, and as
soon as the skin becomes cracked decay sets in.

The exposure on the street of fruits, especially those
with rough skins or crushable berries, as raspberries,
blackberries, etc. — a collecting ground for dust — ren-
ders them unfit for food without more thorough washing
than they often receive or it is possible to give them.
Children who buy and eat them from the stand run
great risks, perhaps not from deadly poisons, but of
digestive disturbances which may lead to fatal illness.
The great increase of fruit on the market is not an
unmixed blessing, since a greater amount of damaged
fruit finds its way to the tenement house children and
is as responsible for illness among those from five to ten
years of age as bad milk is for sickness among infants.
More careful inspection of fruit is needed.

These facts should lead to a more careful scrutinizing
of the fresh fruits, before they are put upon the table,
for the micro-organisms which are present upon them.

Apples are the American fruit par excellence. In
1905, 2,000, ocx),ooo bushels of this fruit were marketed.
The apple is a smooth-skinned, solid fruit, not easily
marred, and therefore readily transported without exces-
sive loss from decay. It may be cleaned so easily that
there is no excuse if it causes trouble. It has an agree-
able flavor and serves as a condiment to other foods.
The old-fashioned process of drying it in thick sections
permitted the browning by an enzyme oxadase which

Il8 FOOD MATERIALS

somewhat injured the flavor. Moreover, as we now
realize, the exposure to flies is an added risk.

The modern evaporated apples, sliced and dried
quickly, serve, when properly cooked, in almost all
ways as well as the fresh fruit. Sometimes bleaching
by sulphite is resorted to. If the first short soaking
water is thrown away after the fruit is washed, nearly
all danger from the sulphite is averted.

Nearly the same statements apply to peaches and
apricots and plums. They are not so easily transported,
being of softer flesh. Their outer skin is fuzzy, or
downy, and hence holds more micro-organisms, and
it cracks more easily ; on the other hand, they dry
rather more readily. The dried plum is known to us
as the prune.

The peach is short-lived, and at best remains in good
condition but a comparatively short time, whereas the
apple may be kept for months, or even for a couple
of years, in such condition that the cells are appar-
ently able to perform their natural functions, though
to a somewhat diminished extent.

Grapes. About 1,500,000,000 pounds of grapes
were raised in America in 1905, and of these prob-
ably two-thirds went to the consumer in four and
eight-pound baskets.

The banana tree (Musa sapientum Z.), although
extensively cultivated in tropical America, is a native
of the Old World. It is said to produce more food
to the acre than any other plant. Whether eaten as
a vegetable, cooked or raw as a fruit, it is a valuable
addition to the table. Banana flour is beginning to be
found on the market and should come into favor.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS IIQ

The pineapple (Ananassa saliva Schult)^ a tropical
American fruit, is somewhat abundant in our markets.
The pulp appears to contain an enzyme which is a
powerful digester of proteids, and if separated from
the irritating outer layer may come into use as an aid
to weak digestion as well as a pleasant fruit.

The date palm {Pkamix dactylifera Z.), one of the
most ancient trees, has a fruit which furnishes the
desert Arabs and other wanderers with their chief food. '

A more or less well-founded suspicion that the dried
packages have not been handled in a cleanly fashion is
doubtless the occasion of the prejudice against this
most nutritious and tasty fruit.

That we shall not always be dependent on this
supply has been provided by the government.

"The transfer from the great deserts of the whole
world to those of the new of the unique date industry
is an accomplishment of which the government may
well be proud. . . . Though the attention of the public
was first attracted to the possibilities of growing the
foreign date palm in this country through chance
seedlings that bore fruit and through an early intro-
duction of the pomologist of this department, it was
the exploration trip of Mr. Swingle to the Desert
of Sahara in 1899 that first proved the feasibility of
starting commercial date plantations in Arizona and
California. From the time when the first large ship-
ment of palm suckers reached the Southwest until the
present, the Office of Plant Introduction has had an
explorer in some one or other of the date regions of the
Old World, gathering plants for the government plan-

I20 FOOD MATERIALS

tations. Today the list of introduced varieties numbers
over 170, and more than 3,000 pahns, large and small^
have been imported and planted out. The best sorts
from Egyptian oases, selected kinds from the valley of
the Tigris, the famous dates of Southern Tunis, and
even the varieties from uncivilized Beluchistan have
been gathered into what may proudly be called the
best collection of date varieties in the world. This
search through the deserts of the world has revealed
the fact that the dates of our markets are only one
or two kinds of the host of sorts known to the true
date eaters, the Arabs, and that those we prize as
delicacies are by no means looked upon by the desert
dwellers as their best. The search has brought to light,
as well, the hard, dry date, which Americans do not
know at all, and which they will learn to appreciate
as a food, just as the Arab has. Already Algerian
and Egyptian imported palms have borne and ripened
fruit." 1

DRIED FRUITS

Dried or evaporated apple, peach, and apricot may
be had in various qualities for a low price per pound.
If the product on the market was originally good, the
"evaporation** does not appreciably injure it.

It is only when inferior and green fruit has been
dried that one fails to receive the worth of one's money.
The much derided prune is being so extensively culti-
vated in California that it may come into the favor it
deserves. Perhaps if it were known by its true name
of plum it would gain in favor.

^Fairchild: National Geographic Magazine, June, 1906.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 121

Raisins, figs, etc, have a nutritive value nearly equal
to that of bread, containing 40 to 50 per cent of sugar.
Raisins have proved an excellent food for Arctic
expeditions, sustaining the animal heat under extreme
conditions.

CHAPTER X

CANNED FOODS AND JEXLIES

THE habit of apartment house and hotel life makes
it impossible to do much home preserving, and
the difficulty of doing on the farm all that is needed
in the few short weeks of fruiting time makes it inev-
itable that the factory must turn out most of the
product. It is true that much more may be done on
the farm and in the country than is now customary
in the way of saving fruits and vegetables when they
are in their prime. The United States Department of
Agriculture is preparing bulletins on preserving vege-
tables as companions to Miss Parloa's on "Home
Canning of Fruits.''

It is possible to supply the table of a dweller in a
large city with fresh hothouse grown string beans, peas,
beets, tomatoes, etc, every day in the year, but to the
country dweller and to the person of limited means
there is the possibility of quite as good a flavor from
canned goods at a much smaller price. Because the
forced products never have the same fully developed
flavor that the same products have in their proper
season, many city people have forgotten, if they ever
knew, the real flavor of fresh vegetables. The canned
vegetables, when of the good quality that are put up
in their prime, retain more of the true flavor than
do those that are forced. They are more difficult to

122

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 123

prepare than fruits, partly because of the starchy nature,
which favors fermentation.

Just a word here on the fundamental principles of
preserving such perishable articles. It means killing
all the low forms of vegetation, such as molds and bac-
teria on the surface of the fruit or vegetables, together
with any that may get in during the handling neces-
sary in preparation and any clinging to the vessels used
in the process. Heat is the best sterilizer, and if it did
not injure the flavor and appearance it would be a sim-
ple matter to "put up" any of these things. It is,
however, a nice distinction to draw the line between
the degree of heat needful to kill the undesirable plant
life and that which harms the subject of the operation.
Mr. E. F. Pernot, of Oregon, has made experiments on
canning vegetables and fruits. He finds that the most
successful method is the heating of clean, fresk vegeta-
bles in jars of sterilized water. The jars are sealed
and heated to 165° F. for fifteen minutes. They are
then allowed to stand for twenty-four to forty-eight
hours, after which the operation is repeated. Still
a third time the jars were heated and the process
completed.^

Again, these objectionable plants, while easily killed,
have "seeds," or "spores," which endure a greater heat,
and so sprout in a few days.' This necessitates a second
heating and greater danger to flavor and appearance.
To obviate this, various preservatives have been added.
In our present ignorance as to the effect of such
additions on health it is wisest to omit them and cook

1 Oregon Experiment Station, Bulletin No. 87.

124 FOOD MATERIALS

sufficiently to preserve the fruits and vegetables without
them.

It goes without saying that, other things being
equal, a tall, narrow jar or can will serve better than
a short, wide one. The cans of French peas are a
case in point ; the narrow bottles of our grandmothers
offer another.

Vegetables contain more proteids, as a rule, than do
fruits; they also harbor more organisms, and are cor-
respondingly difficult to keep. Compare sweet corn
and pears, for instance. The small kernel is attached
to the cob by a narrow hook, with plenty of room
around the socket for the hiding of molds and fungi;
these mingle with the corn as cut from the cob, and
it is no wonder that the keeping of corn is more
difficult than that of the large, smooth-coated pear.

Great use is made of canned goods, from the house-
wife's dozen jars to the tons put up in tins by large
concerns. Most of these are wholesome and valuable
additions to the bill of fare. When put up whole
defects are visible, and it is chiefly from preservatives
that there is danger. These are more probable in the
handsome product in glass jars. Benzoic acid has been
found, and in some brands both this and the sulphites.
Sulphite preparations have been sold to the housewife
to enable her to compete with the shop in appearance.

The universal use of tin cans has led health authori-
ties to watch closely for excess of tin and lead from
careless soldering, with the result that today only the
best quality of tin and lap solder on the outside are
found on standard goods. In the earlier days of can-

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 125

ning even condensed milk has contained enough lead
to give rise to lead poisoning of children. It was not
uncommon to pick out lumps of solder, several of
them as large as peas or beans, from a can of toma-
toes. With better knowledge, these poor quality cans
are little used; still the housewife will do well to
scrutinize a few cans of each new brand to see if the
joints are lap joints, that means, showing no solder
inside, and if the tin is without evidence of action by
acids. The poor quality tin is an alloy much more
readily acted on.

The danger from the solution of tin and lead is
much greater when canned goods are depended upon
for staple foods in camp in distant regions. It is
undoubtedly true that time does increase the amount
dissolved, so that dating would have a certain value.

The cry has gone over to the coloring matter intro-
duced as coal tar color. This is added from purely
aesthetic considerations, and it is wholly in the house-
wife's power to stop it by refusing to buy decorative
fruits, jams, and jellies.

Meats which are to be used for canning are usually
partly cooked first, and then put into cans and heated
and sealed. If the meat is in good condition there is
no occasion for adding any preservative or extraneous
substances.

The housewife should see to it that each can is
examined when opened, for both appearance and odor
will reveal bad conditions nine times out of ten. Also
explicit directions should be given to empty the metal
can as soon as it is opened, and to put the can where
it cannot hold water to breed mosquitoes.

126 FOOD MATERIALS

When proper precautions are taken the danger from
canned goods is no greater than from articles purchased
in the open market.

From the extensive investigation being made in the
state laboratories from one end of the country to
the other this year (1906), it seems fair to conclude
that many of the "minced** products sold under the
name of meats have been "filled" with corn meal,
which also allows more water to be held in the mate-
rial than in meat only. Occasionally an excess of zeal
for utilizing waste products has made these canned
goods a dumping ground for scraps better sent to
the fat extractor or the fertilizer house. In some
cases preservatives have been added.

But the public should know that the temptation to
extend a finely divided substance, which to the unaided
eye is homogeneous, is too great to be resisted by
unscrupulous manufacturers.

As in the case of meats, the products in which the
original form of fruit or vegetable is not kept offer
the widest field for both sophistication and adultera-
tion, that is, catsups, sauces, jams, jellies, etc. It is
said that, as in pickling of meats, these materials are
often collected during other processes and kept in bar-
rels or tanks until enough has accumulated for putting
up. It is reasonable to suppose that this is sometimes
done and that preservatives are added to such tanks.

"Sterilized by heat, and sealed from contamination
by germs, there is no class of food stuffs in so little
need of preservatives. It should be taken as almost
positive evidence of careless methods in packing if

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 12/

preservatives are found present. These may have
been used to prevent stock spoiling while awaiting the
final process of canning, or to assist in preserving it
from further deterioration, fermentation having set in.
In many cases artificial coloring is resorted to in order
to make the goods more attractive. This is especially
the case with tomatoes, and indeed with them the
matter is often overdone and they are colored beyond
the natural degree."^

JELLIES

In the case of jams, jellies, and preserves, the igno-
rance of the consumer who has never seen the processes
of "putting up" fruit has permitted the manufacturer
to palm off unsuitable articles. The buyer has no
knowledge of and takes no pains to inform himself
about the appearance of the pure article, and is easily
persuaded that an inferior one is just as good. He
pays the usual penalty of ignorance, in money, in health,
and in self-reproach. It is possible to know all about
the goods we buy, as was said earlier. The taxpayer
supports laboratories for the purpose of protection,
but all their efforts are multiplied because the buyer
will not take the trouble to read the labels that the
law has made plain.

The people have this matter in their hands. The
use of preservatives has prevailed because, as in many
other directions, appearance is valued before quality,
color before flavor. Indeed the average palate seems
to have no discrimination.

1 Report of Professor Willard in the Bulletin of the Kansas State
Board of Health, June, 1906.

128 FOOD MATERIALS

Jellies are a sort of dried fruit juice. Many fruits
contain a substance called /^^^/« or pec tose^ which forms,
when heated with sugar, a gelatinous mass that will
keep for a long time if put in a cool and dry place.

Substitute jellies and jams are abundant on all
markets, for they can be sold at a profit at a price
which brings them within the means of all, and in
most cases they furnish a wholesome variety and add
a needed flavor to a monotonous diet.

According to law these mixtures are to be labeled
for what they are, so that no one need be deceived.
Perhaps right here the author's suggestion of a high
school museum, showing the characteristics of the local
market, may be emphasized. A case in the hallway
or some other convenient place where all the pupils
may spend a few idle moments any day in reading the
labels and familiarizing themselves with the appearance
of pure and adulterated goods will do more than any
one thing toward the enforcement of legal restrictions.
As has been said repeatedly, it is ignorance which has
permitted such a state of things as has been revealed
in certain quarters. The Kansas Bulletin just quoted
describes a brand of "compounded" preserves:

** On the label, which is covered as much as possible
by the word Columbia, appears this statement : * Twenty-
five per cent selected fruit, thirty-one per cent apple
juice, thirty-seven per cent corn syrup, six per cent
granulated sugar. This sample is colored with coal tar
dye, preserved with sodium sulphite, and sweetened
with glucose.' "

Find out from your state bulletins which are the

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 29

best brands on your markets, and do not try every new
thing that you see advertised.

The extension of these various processes for keeping-
perishable food for months and for transporting it hun-
dreds and even thousands of miles has been so great
a boon to explorers, to prospectors in the mountains,,
to dwellers in the desert, to campers and vacationists, to
the housewife with unexpected company, that the good
far outweighs the evil of a few spoiled cans, even of
occasional preservatives.

CHAPTER XI

CONDIMENTS
MUSTARD

THE mustard of commerce is the seed of the plant
Sinapisy of different species, ground into flour.
It belongs to one of the most useful families of our
temperate zone, the Mustard family {Cruciferce). It is
a hardy plant, and grows very readily in our climate.
The famous Durham mustard was originally made
from the wild charlock (Sinapis arvensis), which grew
abundantly around Durham and has a pleasant,
mildly pungent flavor. The name is still retained
as a trade-mark. The charlock grows as a weed in
our wheat fields and furnishes a product known in the
trade as Dakota mustard. Along the coast of Ire-
land the fields, as seen from the passing steamer,
look yellow with the blossoms of the wild charlock,
or Charlie, as it is familiarly called. Black and white
mustard are the two kinds usually found in the mar-
ket, the seeds of Sinapis nigra and Sinapis alba.
Since the whole seeds are to be had, the best way
to study the condiment is to purchase some seeds
and grind them. Several points of difference between
this undoubtedly pure article and that which is bought
ground will be noticed.

In the first place the ground seeds have much oil.

This is not the pungent, volatile oil (Ally I sulphocya-

130

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS I3I

nide) which gives the flavor, but a bland, fixed oil
which is always expressed from the seeds before they
are manufactured into mustard. Next the color of
the pure mustard will attract attention. There is no
mustard of a bright yellow color, the brightest possi-
ble color being a dull yellow. The bright yellow of the
shops is either largely rape seed or artificially colored
to suit a popular taste. Another noticeable difference
is in the pungent smell and taste of the home-ground
article. If such mustard is used for a time that of the
shops seems very insipid.

Mustard is one of the most universal and wholesome
condiments, but its use in medicine is even more impor-
tant. It is of the utmost consequence to have a genuine
article when it is to be used as an active remedy in
sudden illness. The balance of life and death may
depend upon the quality of the mustard used for the
emetic, the plaster, or the bath. Every housekeeper
should see that her medicine chest is supplied with pure
mustard, whatever may be the quality of that in her
spice box.

The adulterations are many. Probably two-thirds
of the mustard sold is anything but pure ground seeds.
The principal ingredients are starch from wheat, rice,
or corn flour, turmeric to color the too white starch,
rape seed, old turnip and radish seed unfit for planting,
linseed, etc.

Of thirty samples examined in the laboratory of
the writer, twenty-one contained more or less starch.
Hardly any seeds of Cruciferce contain starch; hence
its presence is a proof of adulteration. The blue or

132 FOOD MATERIALS

dark purple color which iodine causes in starch grains
and the thickening in boiling water are the simplest
tests. In eleven samples turmeric was added. This
is readily detected by the microscope, as are also the
other seeds. The per cent of oil may be used to deter-
mine the relative strengths of a number of samples,
since it is upon the volatile, pungent oil that the peculiar
properties of mustard depend.

PEPPER

Peppercorns are the berries of the plant Piper
nigrum^ which grows only in tropical climates. Has-
sall says that Malabar, Penang, and Sumatra are the
three kinds most prized. Black and white pepper are
from the same plant, the only difference being that
black pepper is the whole berry dried while green,
while the white, after ripening, has been deprived of
the husk or outer layer of the berry, which is black.
White pepper is milder than the black, for the husks
are quite pungent The best is that from the whole
berry. A good way to secure pure pepper is to use
a little mill on the table, and to grind the whole berries
as wanted. The active properties of pepper depend
upon three substances : about i6 per cent of acrid resin
and piperine, and i to 2 per cent of volatile oil.

The adulteration of pepper is extensive. Indeed it
is the exception rather than the rule to find a pure
article in the market. Wheat flour, ground rice, Indian
meal, husks of the London-made white pepper, husks
of mustard, nutshells, charcoal, peas, poppy seeds,
exhausted pepper and the mysterious "P. D." pepper

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 33

dust, said to be the sweepings of the warehouses, can
be imported for as many cents a pound as the prepared
article can be sold for an ounce ; so that there is great
temptation to use these harmless but not tempting
mixtures. Time and trouble are saved by the purchase
of ready ground condiments, but the price paid is too
great in proportion.

Of sixteen samples examined three were fairly good ;
nine were made up of pepper and mustard husks, flour,
and Indian meal. Most of the adulterations can be
detected by the microscope, after a careful study of
the structure of the various seeds and husks ; but expe-
rience has taught the writer that considerable practice
is required to become expert at the detection of the
kind of foreign matters used.

CAYENNE PEPPER AND PAPRIKA

Red or Cayenne pepper is made from the ground
pods of various species of Capsicum, a plant of the
Nightshade family. The cayenne of commerce is
derived from tropical species, but the pods of the red
peppers which are commonly cultivated for pickles,
when ground, make a very good cayenne. The pecul-
iar pungent taste is due to the presence of about
4 per cent of an acrid resin. The earlier English
writers state that cayenne is more liable to adulteration
than black pepper, and alarming stories are told of the
presence of red lead, mercury, etc. But the results of
examinations made in this country do not show any
poisonous addition, and the addition of flour, etc, is
rather less than in black pepper.

134 FOOD MATERIALS

The Hungarian red pepper, or paprika, is a mild
variety of Capsicum annuum which is coming into favor
as being less biting.

Sawdust from red sandalwood and coal tar colorings
are sometimes found in these peppers.

The following figures are taken from official reports
from Massachusetts :

In 1 90 1 of thirty-nine examined nine were adulter-
ated with plaster, wheat, corn meal, coal tar dye, dirt,
ginger, pepper shells, olive stones, sawdust.

In 1902 of sixty-six examined six were adulterated
with plaster, wheat, corn meal, coal tar dye, dirt, ginger,
pepper shells, olive stones, sawdust.

In 1903 of sixty-one examined one was adulterated
with plaster, wheat, corn meal, coal tar dye, dirt, ginger,
pepper shells, olive stones, sawdust.

In 1904 of seventeen examined six were adulterated
with plaster, wheat, corn meal, coal tar dye, dirt, ginger,
pepper shells, olive stones, sawdust.

Samples examined in Michigan show :

In 1 90 1 of twenty-seven examined nineteen were
adulterated as above.

In 1904 of 129 examined seventy-four were adulter-
ated as above.

SPICES

Those spices, like nutmeg, cloves, stick cinnamon,
mace, and allspice, which are bought by weight and in
the form in which they are gathered are not exactly
capable of adulteration. But there is a certain decep-
tion to be guarded against. An inferior or cheaper

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 35

quality of the same or of a similar kind of spice may
be mixed with or substituted for better or more costly
sorts without any corresponding diminution in price.

For instance, wild nutmegs are mixed with cultivated
ones, bearing about the same relation to the best quali-
ties that a cider apple does to a fine Baldwin. It is the
same with mace and cloves, while cassia is so largely
substituted for cinnamon that it is almost impossible to
find stick cinnamon that is not mixed with cassia.
To learn to know the genuine species with certainty
is our only safeguard. Then if we choose to buy cassia
we shall do it with our eyes open and without paying
the price of the delicate and costly cinnamon.

NUTMEGS

There are three species of Myristica which furnish
nutmegs. The best are the kernels of the Myristica
fragranSy and are called queen nutmegs. The tree is a
native of the East India islands, but is also cultivated
in India and Central America. The best nutmegs are
those from Penang, which are about an inch in length,
shaped like a damson plum. The kernels are usually
pickled in lime water, to ward off the attacks of insects
to which they are particularly liable. The weight of
good nutmegs should be, on an average, one hundred
to the pound, or nearly seven to the ounce, grocers'
weight. Very fine ones weigh eighty and one hundred
to the pound, or five or six to the ounce. If pricked
with a pin the oil exudes visibly, and the pin also pene-
trates readily. Wild nutmegs are small and pointed.
They are inferior in the amount of oil and in the
general fragrance.

136 FOOD MATERIALS

MACE

Mace is the aril of the nutmeg, and its quality
depends very greatly upon the kind of kernel on
which it grows, the aril of the queen nutmeg being
the best.

CINNAMON

The best cinnamon comes from Ceylon. It is the
bark of a tree of the Laurel family, which gives us, even
in this temperate climate, such plants as our sassafras
and our spicebush. The trees are topped like osier
willows, and the cinnamon used is the bark from the
young shoots which form the bush at the top of the
tree, and which are cut twice a year. A tract not
much more than a quarter of a mile square forms the
great cinnamon orchard of Ceylon. No other country
produces so fine a quality, or so great a quantity, as
the fertile and siliceous tracts of Ceylon and the
neighboring islands.

The most noticeable character of true cinnamon is its
splintery, fibrous quality. It tears rather than breaks,
and is in small, thin rolls. The taste is sweet and
spicy, and it retains its flavor long in the mouth.

CASSIA

Cassia is used to mix with cinnamon, being cheap
and abundant. It is coarser and in thicker rolls. It
breaks readily but does not tear, and if chewed is gran-
ular and rather mucilaginous. It lacks the delicate,
sweet taste and smell of cinnamon, having a peculiar
woody, strong flavor of its own.

China or Canton cassia, the Cassia lignea of the

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 13/

pharmacists, is the commonest and cheapest, costing
about half as much as that of Batavia and one-fifth
that of Saigon. It is the bark of a small evergreen
found fn Southeastern China.

The tree from which Saigon cassia, the most pun-
gent and expensive of all the cassia or cinnamon barks,
is taken grows in Cochin China. It is not unusual to
find 4 or even 5 per cent of oil in good samples.

CLOVES

Cloves are the unexpanded flower buds of the
Caryophyllus aromaticusy a tree of the Myrtle family,
which is a native of the Moluccas, but which is culti-
vated in the East and West Indies, Guiana, Brazil,
and the Philippines. Like all the spices under con-
sideration, the active principle is due to one or more
oils, which may be and are extracted and sold as oil
of clove, oil of cassia, etc. Whole cloves containing
15 to 25 per cent of essential oil can hardly be said to
be adulterated, although the stalks are sometimes in
excess of the buds. Advantage is taken of the property
of imbibing a large portion of moisture to increase the
weight, and exhausted cloves are sold after distillation
of the oil.

PIMENTO, OR ALLSPICE

Pimento is the berry of the Eugenia pimento^ a tree
of the Myrtle family, a native of the Caribbee Islands,
and also cultivated in the East Indies. The berries
have a fragrant odor, supposed to resemble a mixture
of cloves, cinnamon, and nutmegs ; hence the name of
allspice.

138

FOOD MATERIALS

GINGER

The ginger plant (Zingiber officinale) belongs to the
order from which turmeric and East India arrowroot
are obtained. It is a native of India and China, and
is cultivated in tropical America and Africa. The
ginger of commerce is derived from the fleshy, creep-
ing rootstalks, which are dug up when about a year
old, and, if scraped and dried, give white or Jamaica
ginger; if left coated, or unscraped, black or East
India ginger. Calcutta exports the principal part of
the ginger used. Ginger contains, besides the volatile
oil, an aromatic resin.

African and Calcutta ground ginger is brown ; that
from Jamaica, Japan, etc, being from scraped roots, is
white or light buff.

After being treated with alcohol in the manufacture
of ginger extract, or with water for ginger ale, the
residue is used to adulterate fresh materials. Rice,
bran, linseed meal, cereals, and turmeric are also found
as adulterants.

Massachusetts reports give the following figures
with regard to ginger :

1901
1902

1903

Examined.

253
246

224

Adulterated.

20

17
9

Adulterants.

Wheat, rice, dirt,
turmeric, buckwheat

CURRY

Curry is not so extensively used in America as it
deserves, yet it is found so often as to justify a word.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 39

It is composed of a mixture of spices and highly colored
with turmeric. It is liable to variations of strength,
as are the spices of which it is composed.

ADULTERATION OF SPICES

In ground spices, as a rule, we find much reason
for dissatisfaction. Their only merit now is conven-
ience, not quality. Nutmegs, mace, and cloves are so
oily that to grind them easily some absorbent like saw-
dust or starch is added, and this becomes a part of
the ground spice as the first step, whatever may be
added later. There is, however, but little demand for
ground nutmeg, American housekeepers having the
good sense to prefer the whole nuts.

Twelve specimens of cinnamon were examined.
Only three of these contained any cinnamon at all.
Even these were mixed with cassia and sawdust. The
other nine were chiefly cassia and sawdust, mahogany
sawdust being distinctly identified in some of them.
Two contained a very little cassia and a great deal of
sawdust, and the third was nothing but sawdust, there
being no trace of any spice in it.

All these spices may be examined under the micro-
scope ^ for adulterations ; but, as has been said before,
only experience will give the training of the eye which
will render an opinion worth anything. Each kind of
spice here mentioned has its own peculiarities, and
after these are thoroughly studied the additions may
be at once determined. The adulterations are much

^See Microscopy of Vegetable Foods. A. L. Winton and
J. Moeller.

I40

FOOD MATERIALS

the same in all this class — starch in some form,
turmeric for color, mustard husks for pungency.

The following table is taken from the Massachusetts
report for 1904 :

Allspice

Cassia

Cayenne

Ginger

Mace

Mustard . . . . ^

Nutmeg

Pepper

Vinegar ......

Examined.

Genuine.

Adulterated.

159

154

5

192

191

I

55

50

216

212

4

31

19

12

226

195

31

16

IS

I

346

333

13

54

34

20

Per cent,
adulterated.

314
0.5

0.0

1.9
38.8

1 1.6
6.3

3-8
371

VINEGAR

Vinegar {vin aigre)^ as its name implies, was
originally made from sour wine, that is, from wine in
which the alcoholic fermentation had given place to
that which produces acetic acid. The whole of the
alcohol may be changed into acetic acid by means of
the vinegar ferment {Mycoderma acett)y commonly called
"mother of vinegar.** A very little of this in the
presence of air is sufficient to convert a large quantity
of alcohol.

In the United States and Canada vinegar is derived
chiefly from cider. The best of it is made by a long
process of fermentation in casks. The casks are half
filled and left, with bungholes open to allow the free
circulation of air, in a warm cellar or exposed to the
air. This process requires two or three years unless
the change is hastened by the addition of old vinegar.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS I4I

A lack of patience impels most manufacturers to
resort to a quicker method, known as the ** generator **
process, by which the cider is allowed to percolate
through a filter of beech wood shavings or birch twigs
saturated with old vinegar. This process requires only
two or three days.

In France and Germany pure vinegar is understood
to be made from wine, while in England vinegar means
malt vinegar.

Proof vinegar contains about 5 per cent of acetic
acid, but that sold in the shops often contains only
3 per cent, or even less.

The methods of adulteration of vinegar are (i) by
dilution, (2) by mixing with cheaper sorts, (3) by the
substitution of cheaper grades, with the possible addi-
tion of mineral acids, coloring matter, or spices for
flavoring. Entirely artificial substitutes for vinegar
are made up of distilled or spirit vinegar, that is,
vinegar made from distilled whisky, brandy, or grain
alcohol, colored with caramel and thickened with a jelly
made from exhausted apple pomace (the refuse left after
all the juice has been expressed from the apple stock
by the cider mill).

Wood vinegar from pyroligneous acid, derived from
wood by distillation, is sometimes .flavored with acetic
acid.

Simple tests of vinegar may be made by evaporating
in a shallow dish. The residue from cider vinegar has
the odor of baked apples and a slightly acid flavor ; the
odor and taste of the residue from wine vinegar are
decidedly vinous.

142 FOOD MATERIALS

PICKLES

Cucumbers and various other vegetables, such as
onions, cauliflower, string beans, beets, and peppers,
are preserved in vinegar as pickles. For the finest
qualities the pure cider, wine, or malt vinegar is used.
These are usually preserved without cooking. The
cucumbers and other hard vegetables, having been first
soaked in brine, the soft vegetables, like beans, having
been soaked in water, are then treated with boiling
vinegar.

In the case of pickles, a depraved taste has led to
the demand for bright green pickles, and this taste has
sometimes been gratified by adding copper sulphate or
by boiling the pickles in copper kettles with vinegar
and a little alum. The acetic acid of the vinegar acts
upon the copper, forming a little acetate of copper, one
of the most poisonous of all the salts of copper; and
this, being absorbed by the pickles, colors them green.
Cheap pickles are put up in so-called "white wine," or
spirit vinegar. For the presence of copper, immerse
a strip of clean, bright iron in the liquid, and if copper
is present the iron will become coated with a thin film
of metallic copper in a few minutes.

Olives are usually pickled before they are wholly
ripe. They are soaked first in a solution of potash and
lime, then in cold water, and finally preserved in a brine
which may or may not be flavored with fennel, laurel
leaves, coriander, or vinegar.

A queen olive is simply a large-sized fruit and not
a special variety. The ripe olive is growing in favor
and is said to be more digestible than the green.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 43

Capers are the flower buds of Capparis spinosa
pickled in .vinegar.

SALT

Salt is of universal use, and it has been known from
the earliest times. It is found in a solid, rocklike form
in many countries. Salt springs are not uncommon,
and on the coast the evaporation of sea water gives
sea salt. Rock salt is mined in Austria and at North-
wick, near Liverpool, in England. A mine is now
worked in Louisiana. Much salt is made in New
York, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia by-
evaporating the water of salt springs. Salt is nearly
pure sodium chloride, but it almost always contains
small quantities of chloride of magnesium, which causes
the salt to become moist in damp air, and which gives
it the bitter taste often noticed.

A little cornstarch may be mixed with salt to keep
it dry. If this is done by the manufacturer it should
be so stated on the label.

There is a difference of opinion as to the healthful-
ness of salt when taken with food. Habit, rather than
common sense, seems to govern the amount used.

FLAVORING EXTRACTS

These have had, periodically, highly sensational
stories told about them. In the two or three dozen
samples examined in the laboratory no harmful ingre-
dient was found. There was a great deal of difference
in the strength of the different brands.

Most of the **pure fruit flavors'* on the market
should be sold for what they are — artificial essences.

144

FOOD MATERIALS

Since it is, in many cases, impossible to keep the true
fruit flavor in extracts from the fruits themselves, cer-
tain compounds are mixed to imitate the fruits as nearly
as may be.

Raspberry, peach, and oi:ange essences are most
complex in composition when artificially prepared, rasp-
berry being made up of fourteen ethers and acids in
glycerin added to alcohol.

LEMON

In lemon extract a large proportion of alcohol is
required to hold in solution the valuable oil of lemon,
which is insoluble in water. The temptation, there-
fore, is to use weak alcohol, which does not dissolve
the oil, or to substitute artificial acids and flavors.
Methyl alcohol has been known to be used.

The flavor of the cheap extracts is enhanced by
citral, oil of citronella, and of lemon grass in minute
quantities. The extracts of standard quality are col-
ored with lemon peel, but as this coloring does not last
coal tar dyes and turmeric are used extensively.

Table of Lemon Extracts Examined in Massachusetts

No. examined.

Adulterated.

Adulterants.

I90I

167

139

•

(representing
icx) brands)
16

Foreign color and
insufficient amount

1902

13

of lemon oil

1903

27

19

1904

32

19

t

In 1903-04, of fifty-three examined by the New
Hampshire State Board thirty-four were adulterated.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 45

A convenient test by which the consumer may get
some idea of the quality of a sample of an extract of
lemon is the addition of about three times as much
water. If the liquid becomes turbid on account of the
separation of the oil of lemon, the sample contains a
fair amount of this oil ; but if it does not become cloudy
on the addition of water, the extract is of a very poor
grade.

VANILLA

The source of vanilla extract is the vanilla bean, the
fruit of the Vanilla planifolia, which is an epiphyte
belonging to the Orchidacece, It is a native of Mexico,
but is cultivated in tropical regions.

The flavoring principle, vanilUn, is found in fine
crystals on the surface of the bean. It occurs in from
I to 2.75 per cent, according to the variety of the bean.
Curiously enough, it is least in the most valued grades.

The following analysis of Tiemann and Harmann
shows :

Per cent vanillin

Mexican beans

1.69

Bourbon beans

2.48

Java beans

2.75

Vanilla is abundantly adulterated by artificial or
synthetic vanillin and coumarin and with tonka bean
extract. The latter is the seed of Coutnarouna odorata
and some other varieties. The flavoring principle is
coumarin, the same as found in sweet grass, vernal
grass, and in sweet clover.

Prune juice is also used to increase the bulk and
give flavor to vanilla.

146

FOOD MATERIALS

Table of

Vanilla Extracts Examined in Massachusetts

Adahoated.

Adulterants.

1901
1902

1903

73
18

25

54

12

> Coumarin and vanillin

ALMOND

Almond oil, according to the United States Pharma-
copoeia, has the following composition :

Oil of bitter almonds . . . 10 c.c.

Alcohol 800 c.c.

Distilled water sufficient to make 1,000 c.c.

The oil of almonds is obtained by the distillation of
crushed bitter almonds or apricot seeds. Most of the
commercial oil is from apricot and peach seeds, which
give practically the same product.

Since prussic acid, which exists in the unpurified oil
of bitter almonds, is known to be highly poisonous, its
presence in almond extract should be considered a
harmful adulteration.

Nitrobenzol, or oil of mirbane, is a heavy yellow
liquid that is used as a substitute for the almond extract.

CHAPTER XII

OTHER MATERIALS USED IN COOKING

SINCE light, sweet bread is one of the most impor-
tant articles of diet, and since in the United States
such bread is largely made in homes, and not in bak-
eries, as is the case in Europe, the substances which
produce this digestible food deserve consideration.

YEAST

Yeast is a cryptogamous plant, a simple cell which
grows by multiplication or budding in a slightly sweet-
ened liquid, converting the sugar into carbonic acid
gas and alcohol, at the same time that it acts upon
starch, converting it into dextrin and then into starch
sugar. The process is technically called alcoholic fer-
mentation^ and yeast a feiment. Different kinds of
fermentation are distinguished by the name of the
principal product to which they give rise, as alcoholic
or yeast fermentation, acetic or vinegar fomentation,
lactic, butyric, etc.

It is because of the evolution of carbonic acid gas,
which is held in the sponge in little bubbles by the
tenacity of the gluten of the wheat, that yeast is used
in the preparation of bread. Wild yeast germs are
floating in the air, and the leaven of olden times owed
its efficiency to the cells which fell into the open vessel.
The objection to this spontaneous fermentation is that

147

148 FOOD MATERIALS

not only the cells of alcoholic fermentation fall in, but
those that produce the other kinds, notably the lactic,
so that bread-making by leaven is a somewhat haphazard
process ; the result may be fairly good, and it may be
very bad. The black sour bread of Germany and other
European countries is made in this manner. The
addition of hops retards decay of the yeast. Modern
yeast is brewers' or beer yeast, even homemade prepa-
rations being mostly started by it ; because both for
beer and bread the alcoholic fermentation is desirable,
and brewers, by careful study and experiment, have
learned so to control the process as to obtain a yeast
consisting of only one kind of organisms, Saccharomyces
cerevisice.

When yeast is added to batter it is like. the scatter-
ing of a multitude of little living cells or seeds, ready
to grow with extraordinary rapidity in a medium suited
to their nutrition. These cells in well-mixed batter
are present at every point ; and as each cell in decom-
posing sugar gives off tiny bubbles of carbonic acid
gas these bubbles are in every part of the dough, ren-
dering it porous or "light." Although wheat flour
contains only about one per cent of sugar, when fer-
mentation is once started the starch is rapidly con-
verted into sugar, and the sugar so formed into carbonic
acid gas and alcohol ; thus the fermentation of bread
goes on at the expense of the starch of the flour.
Cooked starch is acted on more readily than raw, and
therefore the addition of some boiled potatoes to the
sponge causes a more rapid rising.

There are two divisions of beer yeast, high {haute)

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS I49

and low {basse). According to Pasteur the high buds
more rapidly, floats, and is produced by fermentation
at from 50° to 75° F. The low sinks, the cells are
more separate, it buds only for a short time, is pro-
duced at a lower temperature (forty to fifty degrees),
and is of late much used for beer. The best yeast
for bread is that which floats. It is now prepared for
the purpose, and when ready for use is skimmed off,
drained, pressed in sacks, cut up into squares, covered
with tin foil, and sold as compressed yeast. In this
condition it is next best to the fresh brewers' yeast,
with the advantage of small bulk and ease of trans-
portation. If kept cool and dry it will be good for
days; and if dried, not in the sun or in the oven,
but in a current of warm air, it will keep indefinitely.
Packages of dry yeast are composed for the most part
of yeast mixed with corn or rye meal and then dried.

Yeast germs are killed by a temperature of boiling
water, and freezing arrests their growth. The best
temperature for fermentation of beer yeast is from
60° to 70° F.

Since the sole object of bread fermentation is the
production of a porous loaf, Miss Corson's recommen-
dation of the quick process of raising bread in two
hours by the use of two squares of yeast seems to have
a reasonable basis ; and if the bread is, as it should be,
well baked, so that the inside of the loaf has reached a
temperature of boiling water, there will remain no yeasty
flavor. Many loaves do not become heated to this point
even when burned on the outside, consequently the
yeast germs are not killed. Such slack-baked bread
is not wholesome.

ISO FOOD MATERIALS

Yeast is not often adulterated, but its quality may
vary, owing to carelessness in preparation, especially if
it is homemade. There is no doubt that the com-
pressed or Vienna yeast is the best article now at hand
for producing the so-called raised bread. The color
of good yeast is yellow or grayish yellow ; the browner
its tint the more dead germs there are. It should be
only a mass of cells with no fiber or tissue. Occa-
sionally a blue line is seen ; this is due to the presence
of MucorSy or molds. Such yeast makes bread which
will become moldy in a very short time.

SODA, BAKING POWDERS, ETC.

The problem of making porous bread without the
long process of fermentation, and the consequent loss
in material which is converted into carbonic acid and
alcohol, has often occupied the thought of chemists of
reputation. The results have been :

First, aerated bread, made by forcing into the
dough, just before baking, carbonic acid gas prepared
by chemical means in another vessel.

Second, the so-called soda bread of this country,
in which the carbonic acid gas is liberated from bicar-
bonate of soda by the use of an acid, as muriatic,
tartaric, lactic (sour milk), and the acid tartrate of
potassium (cream of tartar), acid phosphate of calcium,
or acid lactate of calcium.

Third, baking powder bread, which is almost uni-
versally used in the United States in place of soda
bread. The great advantage to the community is,
that while baking powders are composed of the same

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS I5I

materials as those mentioned above, they are carefully
mixed, so that neither acid nor alkali shall be in excess.

SODA

Soda (bicarbonate, supercarbonate, or cooking soda)
is chemically a sodium hydrogen carbonate, prepared
by subjecting recrystallized sal soda, or washing soda, to
an atmosphere of carbonic acid gas. The only impuri-
ties likely to be found are some sulphates and chlorides
remaining from the process of manufacture of the
sal soda.

CREAM OF TARTAR, ETC.

The substances used to liberate the carbonic acid
gas are practically reduced to two — cream of tartar and
acid phosphate of calcium. The first is prepared from
imported argols, a substance used by calico printers
and dyers. It is the crust which is formed on wine
casks in the process of fermentation. In its refined
and purified condition it is sold for bread-making. One
baking powder manufactory, at least, is said to use only
that which has been chemically prepared. The price
being from forty to eighty cents a pound, and in times
of disturbance of foreign commerce even twice that,
cream of tartar is the most liable to be adulterated of
all the articles used in cooking.

Terra alba, sulphate of calcium, or, as it is com-
monly called, gypsum, is the substance most frequently
used to make up lo to 90 per cent of the weight of
cream of tartar. It is reported that fine bone ash
has been found in some samples from the Western
States. In Eastern Massachusetts the most frequent

152 FOOD MATERIALS

adulterant is the much cheaper acid phosphate of cal-
cium; and since this is itself used as a substitute for
cream of tartar, the effect on the bread is not as
much to be feared as if gypsum were used. If it
shall be proved that a certain amount of potassium
salts is desirable to counteract the excessive use of
salt and salted foods, the much discussed cream of
tartar bread may find its place as a recognized article
of diet.

Acid phosphate of calcium is prepared from bones
by treating them with sulphuric acid, setting free a
portion of the phosphoric acid. It is supposed to be
a useful ingredient of Iwread, since it restores some
of the phosphate said to be lost in the bran.

Acid lactate of calcium is used for a cream of tartar
substitute, and in many respects it promises well. It
contains the same acid as sour milk, and is prepared
from starch by the action of the lactic ferment.

BAKING POWDERS

Baking powders, prepared from soda and cream of
tartar chiefly, are, when put up in tin cans with the
maker's name on the label, much more reliable than
any other form of bread-raising preparation. Some-
times a very little bicarbonate of ammonia is added
to secure a complete neutralization of the acid without
leaving an excess of soda. If this amount does not
exceed i per cent it can do no harm. As they are
made in large quantities they are of a more even com-
position than when cooks guess at the proportions by
spoonfuls. The chief adulterant used is starch or

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS I $3

rice flour, sometimes to the extent of 50 per cent.
There is not so much adulteration as has often been
supposed, if the articles are purchased of the large
firms and of reliable dealers. Alum is not infrequently
found in powders sold in bulk. The following simple
tests may be of use to those who have had a little
practice in chemistry.

Good cream of tartar is soluble in eighteen parts of
boiling water. Good baking powder is also soluble ;
a small quantity of starch present will give a certain
opacity to the solution, but if in excess a paste may
be formed stiff enough for laundry use. If there is in
either case much residue insoluble in water which dis-
solves in hydrochloric acid, phosphate or sulphate of
calcium is to be suspected.

A few drops of barium chloride added to the hydro-
chloric acid solution will cause a white precipitate if
sulphates are present in the substance under examina-
tion. If the phosphates are to be tested for, the acid
to be used for a solution is nitric, and to the solution a
few cubic centimeters of molybdate of ammonia are
added. A fine yellow color or precipitate indicates
phosphates. Ammonia is sometimes found in baking
powders. If present, a small lump of potassium hydrate
added to the strong aqueous solution will, on heating,
cause the ammonia to be given off in the steam, which
will then turn red litmus paper blue.

To test for alum prepare a fresh decoction of log-
wood ; add a few drops to the solution or substance,
and render it acid by acetic acid. A yellow color
proves the absence of alum ; a purplish red or a bluish

154 FOOD MATERIALS

color, more or less decided, means more or less alum.
If the substance were not acidified the test might be
vitiated by the presence of an alkali, as in the case of
a baking powder. Caution : Use a new solution, or a
new portion of an old one, for each test.

To judge of the quantity of any of the substances
it is necessary to have a standard article with which
to compare the suspected one. If the same quantity
of each is taken, and it is subjected to the same tests,
a very correct judgment of its quality may be formed.
Acids should be used in glass or china vessels only.

CHAPTER XIII

RECAPITULATION

GOOD Food for Little Money means those ma-
terials which may be sown, gathered, and prepared
largely by machinery, or those which, growing abun-
dantly in distant lands, are dry and hard, and may be
transported without serious loss and kept in ordinary
storage. All such materials are too abundant and of
too low cost by the pound to be subjected to substi-
tution or adulteration. Wise providers make these the
chief articles of diet.

Good Foods Costing More Money are such as
are perishable because of high water content, making
a satisfactory food for the ever present microK)rganisms
of decay. The transportation of so much water (80 to
90 per cent in fruits, 75 per cent in meats) and the
need of cold storage add to the original cost, also to
the inevitable waste, because of the soft character and
frequent accidents in transportation causing delay and
the risks of storage. Such foods grown out of season
are those of which the supply for the market of the
world is limited, of which there are '* not enough to go
around." There is a temptation to use preservatives
with this class of foods. All these should be scruti-
nized carefully and used sparingly if the pennies must
be counted in the week's accounts.

155

156 FOOD MATERIALS

Expensive Foods, reckoned by the pound, are
those valued for some special reason; imported from
the tropics ; or without competition in the market. Cer-
tain of these lend themselves to adulteration or sophis-
tication or to both, as mustard, cinnamon, vanilla, and
lemon extracts, etc. The ready manufacture of arti-
ficial flavors and colors adds to the probability of this
practice. The remedy is a knowledge of the pure
article; then the others will have no attractions.

Nutritious Foods are those that contain consider-
able amounts of either or all of the three chief constitu-
ents of human food :

Carbohydrates (starch, sugar, gums, etc.).

Fats and oils (meat fat, nuts, olive oil, etc.).

Nitrogenous substances (albumen, gluten, casein, etc,
found in meat, eggs, cheese, peas, peanuts).

Foods Valuable for Quality Rather than
Quantity of Constituents :

Fruits for acids and potassium.

Vegetables for essential oils (onions, cabbage) and
potassium salts.

Coffee for flavor and exhilarating effect.

Tea.

Such gastronomic qualities are widely imitated and
frauds are to be looked for.

Foods that May Become Dangerous :

Liable to putrefactive decay with production of

toxins (meats and milk).
Liable to harbor germs in quantity (berries and

vegetables exposed to street dust, hence to some

disease-giving organisms).

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 15/

Liable to carry animal or vegetable organisms, be-
cause of mode of cultivation (as lettuce fertilized
with night soil) ; or because of handling (ice cream
stirred by unwashed hands, ice drawn over spu-
tum-covered sidewalks.)

Unwholesome Foods :
By nature :

Green fruits.

Strawberries for some people.

Potato skins.

Over-ripe fruits harboring worms.
By preparation :

Too salt, too sweet, too dry.
By storage :

Too long.

Tainted before preparation.

Diseased.

Contaminated by dirt.

Foods Safe and Wholesome by Themselves,
but liable to superficial contamination by exposure and
handling :

Bread, etc.

Berries.

Vegetables.

Meats.

Sophisticated Foods, a drain on the pocketbook :

Coffee containing peas and wheat.

Mustard containing starch.

Candy containing glucose and dextrin starch paste.

Adulterated Foods — more or less harmful :
Milk containing formaldehyde.

158 FOOD MATERIALS

Dirty or watered milk.

Jellies and fruit extracts containing coal tar dyes (in

excess) or benzoic acid.
Cereal coffee containing real coffee.

Extent of Adulteration. It is clear that the
great bulk of the staple articles of daily diet are of
excellent quality, with the one exception of milk, and
that is now in a fair way to be much improved. Exam-
ine any of the published lists of the state chemist. The
names of staple foods other than milk are rarely found.
For the tons of flour and sugar and vegetables and
fruits used, the alarmist is able to make a collection
of a few ounces of spices, catsups, and flavoring ex-
tracts, and to run up the numbers of these samples
into hundreds. There is hardly a necessary article
among them. It is only a depraved taste which
requires green candy, pink gelatin, and yellow icing.

Sophistication. The moral question is far more
serious. It is degrading alike to producer and con-
sumer to make and to buy things which are not what
they claim to be. To trade upon the ignorance and
superstition of the mass of the people is the lowest
form of money greed. The quickest remedy for this
is education, and the quickest means of educating the
public is through the introduction of courses in domes-
tic economy in the public schools. Once it was held
to be necessary to read and write and cipher in order to
be a valuable citizen of the state. To that we must now
add a course in marketing in the broad sense, in spend-
ing wisely. The public must protect itself from its
enemies from within as well as from without. To

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 59

realize how far-reaching this one element of sophisti-
cation has gone, it is only necessary to consider recog-
nized conditions. The cost of living has risen some
forty per cent within a few years. During that time
the market has sold:

$.025 worth of grain at $.25

.05 worth of sugar at .60 to .80

.001 worth of fruit juice at .05 a glass

.02 worth of starch at .20, as candy

.01 worth of lemon oil at .25, for extract

Housewife's Duty. Look over your own house-
hold bills and see what part these things play in the
year's expense, take to heart the counsel of your state
authorities, and put your work where it will tell on the
care of the perishable materials exposed for sale. Then
see that there are cooking classes which teach these
principles. The manufacturers and the writers in the
newspapers and magazines have much to answer for,
if the coal tar colors are harmful, for they have fostered
pink teas and orange luncheons, which can be harmo-
niously arranged only through these dyes. The great
American people have the remedy in their own hands.
If they will buy intelligently, with the purpose of
securing nutritious food and not decorative material,
if they will keep to the staple articles and not be led
by the will-o'-the-wisp of skillful advertising (we should
be ashamed to be taken in by such bare-faced state-
ments), they will save money and increase national
prosperity by a higher degree of health, which will
give more real enjoyment than is now momentarily

l60 FOOD MATERIALS

obtained by the consumption of these highly rated,
sophisticated goods.

The Ethical Side. This would not have mattered
so much if the taste of the wage-earner had not been
brought to like these gaudy things, if he had not
been made to believe that they were necessary to self-
respecting living. He naturally wishes to have all
that any one has, and he is made to think that these
are desirable things. The fact is that intelligent con-
sumers do not suffer from these frauds, either in
stomach or in pocket. The great remedy for the
oppressive increase in the cost of living is to educate
the mass of the people in actual economic values and
to make the most stringent laws to protect them from
unclean handling of food. The crusade for clean milk
must be followed by as vigorous a struggle for pro-
tected window displays by ordering all food off the
streets, and again by education as to the necessity
for these regulations, for the greatest danger to health
is found in these directions.

Professor WiUard, summing up the question in the
Bulletin of the Kansas State Board of Health for June,
1906, says :

*' There can be little doubt that in the case of most
preservatives, if not all, their presence interferes with
digestive processes. Whether more so than results
from the use of certain natural, almost unquestioned
articles is debatable. If this be the case it would
seem that the first and most strenuous efforts in food
control should be directed toward securing correct
branding. The label should show what preservatives.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS l6l

if any, are used and the quantities. An individual
would then be free to use the article or not, just as
he may partake of raw onions or leave them alone.
With the conscious use of articles containing preserva-
tives a fund of knowledge on the part of the public
would be accumulated which would serve as a basis
for legislation based on general experience. This
might result in the complete prohibition of certain
preservatives, while others would be permitted under
proper restrictions.

"In respect to adulterations the problem to the
writer seems simpler. An adulteration has but one
purpose — that is, of passing off an article of a quality
inferior to that which the consumer supposes it to be.
Such deception should be repressed without mercy.
Akin to this, though not identical, is the sale of pure
goods of inferior, representing them to be of first, qual-
ity. Against such frauds perhaps we will have to set
the common sense and experience of buyers."

It is not without interest to compare the results
obtained in one of the earliest state surveys, by the
author, at the request of the State Board of Health of
Massachusetts in 1878-79. These results were the
foundation of the first edition of this book.

The author and her assistants personally visited the
chief towns and purchased the samples, choosing those
which seemed from local experience most likely to be
below standard. It must be remembered that the num-
ber of brands was at that date very limited. There
were only half a dozen manufacturers of spices, for
instance, and only a few sugar refineries contributed

1 62 FOOD MATERIALS

to the grocers' list. Chemistry had not then been
impressed into the service of the manufacturer to the
eictent that it is at present.

It was found that of 400 samples, purchased from
141 dealers in forty towns, 284, or 71 per cent, were
good and 29 per cent adulterated (chiefly cream of
tartar and baking powder). This was before the day
of the coal tar coloring.

At a later date spices were examined, with the
following showing : Twelve samples of cinnamon exam-
ined, all adulterated, only three containing any cinna-
mon at all. Cassia, powdered wood, and mahogany
sawdust were found.

Of thirty-two mustards examined, twenty-seven were
adulterated, two only slightly. Only five were good.
Starch, Indian meal, turmeric, ground rape seed, and
turnip seed were found.

Sixteen samples of pepper were examined. Thirteen
were adulterated with ground rice, mustard husks, coarse
pepper husks, and dirt.

Twenty-eight samples of ginger, on the other hand,
showed twenty-one good and only seven adulterated
with starch, turmeric, and mustard husks.

That laws do restrain manufacturers from adulter-
ating their goods is proved by over twenty years of
experience in Massachusetts. Laws were first passed
in 1882. The State Board of Health's report in 1883
shows the situation before the effect of the new law
had been felt. Then the percentage of milk adultera-
tion was 83.9; in 1890 it was 42.6; and in 1900, 28.9.

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 63

Foods Other than milk were adulterated in 1883, 31.2 ;
in 1890, 18.6; and in 1900, 14.2. Percentage of drugs
adulterated in 1883 was 40.8; in 1890, 18.7; and in
1900, 50.2, the only increase shown.

The final word, therefore, is, first inform yourself,
then Ivork for better conditions in the community and
nation.

THE NATIONAL PURE FOOD LAW

Extracts from the text of the national pure food law, passed
by Congress on June 29, 1906: —

An Act far preventing the Manufacture^ Sale^ or Transportation
of Adulterated or Misbranded or Poisonous or Deleterious
Foods, Drugs, Medicines, and Liquors, and for regulating
Traffic therein, and for Other Purposes,

. . . The term " f ood/^ as used herein, shall include all articles
used for food, drink, confectionery, or condiment by man or other
animals, whether simple, mixed, or compound.

Sec. 7. That for the purposes of this Act an article shall be
deemed to be adulterated:

Second. If its strength or purity fall below the professed
standard or quality under which it is sold.

In the case of confectionery:

If it contain terra alba, barytes, talc, chrome yellow, or other
mineral substance or poisonous color or flavor, or other ingre-
dient deleterious or detrimental to health, or any vinous, malt or
spirituous liquor or compound or narcotic drug.

In the case of food:

First. If any substance has been mixed and packed with
it so as to reduce or lower or injuriously aifect its quality or
strength.

Second. If any substance has been substituted wholly or in
part for the article.

Third. If any valuable constituent of the article has been
wholly or in part abstracted.

Fourth. If it be mixed, colored, powdered, coated, or stained
in a manner whereby damage or inferiority is concealed.

Fifth. If it contain any added poisonous or other added

164

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS 1 65

deleterioils ingredient which may render such article injurious
to health: Provided, That when in the preparation of food
products for shipment they are preserved by an external applL
cation applied in such manner that the preservative is necessarily
removed mechanically, or by maceration in water, or otherwise,
and directions for the removal of said preservative shall be
printed on the covering or the package, the provisions of this
Act shall be construed as applying only when said products are
ready for consumption.

Sixth. If it consists in whole or in part of a filthy, decom-
posed, or putrid animal or vegetable substance, or any portion
of an animal unfit for food, whether manufactured or not, or if
it is the product of a diseased animal, or one that has died
otherwise than by slaughter.

Sec. 8. That the term " misbranded," as used herein, shall

apply to all drugs, or articles of food, or articles which enter

into the composition of food, the package or label of which

shall bear any statement, design or device regarding such article*

or the ingredients or substances contained therein, which shall

be false or misleading in any particular, and to any food or

drug product which is falsely branded as to the State, Territory,

or country in which it is manufactured or produced.

t*. ••*•..••

First. If it be an imitation of or offered for sale under the
distinctive name of another article.

Second. If it be labeled or branded so as to deceive or
mislead the purchaser, or purport to be a foreign product when
not so, or if the contents of the package as originally put up
shall have been removed in whole or in part and other con-
tents shall have been placed in such package, or if it fail to
bear a statement on the label of the quantity or proportion of
any morphine, opium, cocaine, heroin, alpha or beta eucaine,
chloroform, cannabis indica, chloral hydrate, or acetanilide, or any
derivative or preparation of any of such substances contained

therein.

Third. If in package form, and the contents are stated in

terms of weight or measure, they are not plainly and correctly

stated on the outside of the package.

1 66 FOOD MATERIALS

Fourth. If the package containing it or its label shall bear
any statement, design, or device regarding the ingredients or the
substances contained therein, which statement, design, or device
shall be false or misleading in any particular : Provided, That an
article of food which does not contain any added poisonous or
deleterious ingredients shall not be deemed to be adulterated
or misbranded in the following cases:

First. In the case of mixtures or compounds which may be
now or from time to time hereafter known as articles of food,
under their own distinctive names, and not an imitation of or
offered for sale under the distinctive name of another article,
if the name be accompanied on the same label or brand with a
statement of the place where said article has been manufactured
or produced.

Second. In the case of articles labeled, branded, or tagged
so as to plainly indicate that they are compounds, imitations or
blends, and the word "compound," "imitation," or "blend," as
the case may be, is plainly stated on the package in which it is
offered for sale: Provided, That the term blend as used herein
shall be construed to mean a mixture of like substances, not
excluding harmless coloring or flavoring ingredients used for the
purpose of coloring and flavoring only: And provided further.
That nothing in this Act shall be construed as requiring or com-
pelling proprietors or manufacturers of proprietary foods which
contain no unwholesome added ingredient to disclose their trade
formulas, except in so far as the provisions of this Act may
require to secure freedom from adulteration or misbranding.

REFERENCES

For more complete bibliography see Leach's "Food Inspection
and Analysis " and Winton's " Microscopy of Vegetable Foods."

Bailey

Sanitary and Applied Chemistry

Macmillan Co.,
New York

Eccles

Food Preservatives and Their
Proper Uses

Van Nostrand &
Co., New York

Frankland, P.
and G. C.

Bacteria in Daily Life

Longmans, Green
&Co., London

Green

Harrop

Leach

Food Products of the World

Flavoring Extracts with Essences,
Syrups, and Coloring

Food Inspection and Analysis

Hotel World,
Chicago

Harrop & Co.,
Columbus, 0.

Wiley & Sons,
New York

Richards

First Lessons in Food and Diet

Whitcomb & Bar-
rows, Boston

Richards

Cost of Food

Wiley & Sons,
New York

Richards and
Woodman

Air, Water, and Food

Wiley & Sons,
New York

Snyder

Chemistry of Plant and Animal
Life

Macmillan Co.,
New York

Packing-house Industries, Cot-
tonseed Oil, Manufacture of
Leather and Soap

International
Text-Book Co.,
Scranton, Pa.

Thurber

Coffee from Plantation to Cup

American Grocer
Pub. Asso., New
York

Chocolate Plant and Its Products

Walter Baker Co.

Winton and
Moeller

Microscopy of Vegetable Foods
PERIODICALS

Wiley & Sons,
New York

Leffman

Milk Inspection and Milk
Standards

Medical News,
Feb. 2, 1895

McFarlane

Flavoring Extracts

167

In. Rev. D e p t .

Canada, Bui. 89

i68

FOOD MATERIALS

McGill
McGiU
McFarlane

Jams, Marmalades, and Jellies

GUveOU

Highly Colored Confectionery

Clean Milk, an Experiment in
Its Production at the Ware-
lands, Highland Lake, Mass.

Lab. In.Rev. Dept.
Canada, Bui. 104

Lab. In.Rev. Dept.
Canada,Bul.iii

Lab. In. Rev. Can-
ada, BuL 112

Woman's Educa-
tional and In-
dustrial Union,
Boston

Richards and Story of the New England Kitchen
Abel

National Geographic Magazine

Technology Quarterly, Vol. Ill, No. 3

Agricultural Analysis, Vol. Ill

Proceedings of Lake Placid Conference, 1904

UNITED STATES BULLETINS

Experiment Stations Record (monthly) issued by United States
Department of Agriculture.

Atwood, Da-
vidson,
Moncure

Bigelow and
Howard

Bigelow

Bigelow,Gore,
Howard

Bigelow

Chase, Tol-
man, Mun-
son

M u n s o n ,
Coleman,
Howard

Chemical Composition of Apples
and Cider

Some Forms of Food Adulter-
ation

Food and Food Control

Studies on Apples

Studies on Peaches

Chemical Composition of Some
Tropical Fruits and Their
Products

Fruits and Fruit Products

U. S. Dept. of
Agr., Bureau of
Chem., Bui. 88

U. S. Dept. of
Agr., Bureau of
Chem., Bui. 100

U. S. Dept. of
Agr., Bureau of
Chem., Bui. 69
(revised Part 8)

U. S. Dept. of
Agr., Bureau of
Chem., Bui. 94

U. S. Dept. of
Agr., Bureau of
Chem., Bui. 97

U. S. Dept. of
Agr., Bureau of
Chem., Bui. 97

U. S. Dept. of
Agr., Bureau of
Chem., BuL 66

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS

169

Richardson

Food and Food Adulterants

U.S. Dept. of
Agr., Bureau of
Chem., Bui. 13,
Part 2

Tolman, Mun-
son

Olive Oil and Its Substitutes

U. S. Dept. of
Agr., Bureau of
Chem., Bui. 77

Wedderbum

Food Adulteration

U. S. Dept. of
Agr., Bureau of
Chem., Bui. 25

Wedderbum

Food and Drug Adulteration
Laws

U. S. Dept. of
Agr., Bureau of
Chem., Bui. 41

Wiley

Foods and Food Adulterants

U. S. Dept. of
Agr., Bureau of
Chem., Bui. 13,
Parts 4, s, 6, 7,

8,9

Wiley

Experiments in the Culture of
Sugar Cane and Its Manufac-
ture into Table Syrup

U. S. Dept. of
Agr., Bureau of
Chem., Bui. 93

Abel

Sugar as Food

Farmers' Bulletin,
No. 13

Atwater

Foods, Nutritive Value and Cost

Farmers* Bulletin,
No. 23

Atwater

Poultry as Food

Farmers* Bulletin,
No. 182

Hubbard

Maple Sugar and Syrup

Farmers* Bulletin,
No. 252

Langworthy

Eggs and Their Uses as Food

Farmers* Bulletin,
No. 128

Langworthy

Fruit and Its Uses as Food

Farmers* Bulletin,
Reprint from
Year-Book for
1905

Parloa

Canned Fruit

Farmers* Bulletin,
No. 203

Parloa

Preparation of Vegetables for
the Table

Farmers* Bulletin,
No. 256

Woods

Meats, Composition and Cooking

Farmers* Bulletin,
No. 36

Woods and
Snyder

Cereal Breakfast Foods

Farmers* Bulletin,
No. 294

I/O

FOOD MATERIALS

Experiment Station, Farmers' Bulletin, No. 42

Bureau of Animal Industry, Farmers' Bulletin, No. 20

Office Experiment Station, Farmers' Bulletin, No. 72

Office Experiment Station — Meats, Fanners' Bulletin, No. 180

STATE REPORTS AND BULLETINS

Illinois State Board of Health: Recommendations to Municipalities
Concerning the Sale of Undrawn Poultry; February, 1906.

Miller

Baking Powders

Fla. Agr. Expt.
Sta., Bui. 52

Norton

Food Adulteration in Arkansas

Ark. Agr. Expt
Sta., Bui. 88

Pemot

Canning Fruit and Vegetables,
Preserving Fruit Juices

Ore. Sta., Bui. 87

Richards

Adulterations of Groceries

Reprint from Re-
port to Mass.
State Board of
Health, 1880

Robinson

Breakfast Foods

Mich. Expt. Sta.,
Div. of Chem.,
Bui. 21

Short

Fat in Milk

Univ. of Wis. Agr.
Expt. Sta., Bui.
16

Storrow

Composition of Prepared Cereal
Foods

Wyo. Expt. Sta.,
Bui. 33

Snyder

Studies in Bread and Bread
Making

Minn. Agr. Expt.
Sta., Bui. loi

Snyder

Milling Tests of Wheat

Minn. Agr. Expt.
Sta., Bui. 90

Snyder

Digestibility and Nutritive Value
of Bread

Minn. Agr. Expt
Sta., Bui. 126

Snyder,
Frisky,

Composition and Digestibility of
Potatoes and Eggs

Minn. Agr. Expt.
Sta., Bui. 43

Bryant

Weida Analysis of Chocolate and Cocoa Univ. of Kansas

Bulletins of the Kansas State Board of Health, March, June, July, 1906
Kansas State Board of Agriculture
Kansas Academy of Science, Vols. 1-20
Illinois Expt. Sta., Bui. 91
Illinois State Board of Health Sanitary Investigations, 1901

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS I/I

Quality of Milk Affected by Common Daiiy Practices. Conn. Agr.
Expt. Sta., Bui. 42

Connecticut Agr. Expt. Sta. Annual Reports

New Hampshire Sanitary Bulletins (quarterly), Reports of Food In-
spection, October, 1904; July, 1906

New Hampshire State Board of Agriculture, Vol. 13

Wisconsin Dairy and Food Commission (quarterly), Buls. 5, 6, 7

Bulletin of University of Wisconsin (bi-monthly)

Maine Expt. Sta., Bui. 84

Nuts as Food, Maine Expt. Sta., BuL 54

Massachusetts State Board of Health Reports for 1883, 1890-93,

1900-04
Massachusetts State Board of Health Monthly Bulletin

INDEX

Acid, Acetic, 140

Benzoic, 124

Carbonic, 150

Phosphate, 151

Pnissic, 146

Salicylic, 12
Adds, Effect on Tin, 1 24

in Butter, 58, 59

in Fruit, 94

Adulterations, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,

23, 27-29, 35-37, 44» 49» 55»

58* 59» 95» 9o» "6, 131-134.

^ 138, I39» ^41, 153* 158* 160,

161, 162

Proportion of, 1 2
Aerated Bread, 150
Allspice, 134, 137
Almond, 105

Extract, 146

Adulteration, 146
Alum, 152
Analyses of Cereal Foods, 67-68

Cereal Grains, 85-86

Cheese, 61

Chicory, 36

Cocoa, 42

Eggs, 61

Milk, 47

Nuts, 103

Tea, 29

Wheat, 79, 80-81
Apples, 117

Dried, 117, 120

Evaporated, 118
Apricots, 118
Arrowroot, 83
Auto-Infection, 2, 12

Baking Powder, 10, 150, 152, 153

Adulteration, 152, 153
Banana, 118

Flour, 1 18

Barley, i, 64, 6?, 70
Beans, 115, no

Soy, no
Benzoate of Soda^ 1 2
Benzoic Acid, 124
Berries, 19, 115, 117
Board of Health, iii, 10, 13, 35,
48, 96, 97, 127, 144, 160, i6i,
162
Books of Reference, 167
Brazil Nut, 103
Bread, 1,85, 147-150
Breakfast Cocoa, 43

Foods, 66-70
Buckwheat, 82

Adulteration, 83
Bulletins, 10, 13, 17, 18, 22, 39, 48,
50, 52, 96, 97, 100, 102, III,
122, 127, 128
Butter, 55-60

Colors, 59, 60

Composition of, 56

Renovated, 59
Butterine, 58
Butternut, 104

Caffeic Acid, 33

Caffeine, 33

Calcium Acid Phosphate, 152

Candy, iv, 93, 97-99

Cane Sugar, 88

Canned Fruits and Meats, iv

Foods and Jellies, 122-129
Capers, 143

Carbohydrates, 67, 82, 116, 156
Cassia, 135, 136, 137
Catsup, iv
Cayenne Pepper, 133, 134

Adulterations, 133, 134
Cellulose, 65, 70, 91, 94
Cereal Foods, 64-86

Coffee, 40, 41

172

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS

173

Cheese, 60-61

Composition of, 61

FiUed, 61
Chestnut, 104
Chicoiv, 35, 36
Chocolate, 42

Adulteration, 44

Preparation of, 44-45
Cider, 140
Cinnamon, 134, 136, 139

Adulteration, 136
Clams, 112, 113.
Clean, 19, 53, 85

Fruits, 117

Markets, 113

Meat, io8-iio

Milk, 51, 52

Vegetables, 114, 115
Cloves, 134, 137
Coal Tar Dye, iv, 13, 59, 98, 125,

128, 158, 159
Cocoa, 20, 41-45

Breakfast, 43

Nibs, 43

Shells, 43
Cocoanut, 104
Coffee, 20, 31-41

Adulterants, 35, 37

Cereal, 40

Houses, 33

Making of, 38-39

Preparation of, 37

Substitutes, 39-41
Cold Storage, 62
Compressed Yeast, 149, 150
Condensed Milk, 53, 125
Condiments, 130-146
Confectionery, 93, 97-99

Adulteration, ^
Conference, Lake Placid, 8
Consumption of Cocoa, 42

Coffee, 33

Meat, 107

Sugar, 99

Tea, 24
Cook Books, 18
Cooking Classes, 17
Com, 124
Com Meal, 126

Starch, 83, 143

Crackers, 85
Cream, 49, 50, 54-55

Adulteration, 55

Certified, 55

Sterilized, 55
Cream of Tartar, 11, 15, 151, 153

Adulteration, 11, 15, 151
Curry, 138

Dairies, 50-53, 56-57
Date, 1 1 9-1 20
Desiccated Eggs, 63
Dextrin, 91, 92
Dextrose, 91, 92
Diet, 18

Articles of, i

Errors of, 2

Milk, 47

Principles of, 1-3
Dietaries, 2

Disease, 2, 18, 19, 48, 115
Domestic Economy, 5
Dried Fruits, 1 20-121

Economy, 16, 17, 26

Domestic, 5
Education of Girls, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

of Public, 13, 163
Efficiency, 9, 19
Efficient Living, 8
Eggs, 61-63

Desiccated, 63

Methods of Preserving, 62

Substitutes, 63
Enzyme, 92, 117, 119
Ergot, 76
Essences, 144
Exhausted Coffee Berries, 34

Tea Leaves, 26, 28, 29
Experiment Station Bulletins, 42,
52, 67, 123

Farina, 83

Farmers* Institutes, no

Fat, 43, 67, 1 56

Fermentation, 147, 151

Figs, 121

Filbert, 103

Filters, 21, 22

Fish, 112

174

FOOD MATERIALS

Flavoring Extracts, 143
Flies, 48
Floar, 65, 79-82
Food, I, 19

Composition of, 17

Habits, 19

Infants', 75

Infants* and Invalids', 84

Materials, 19

Milk as, 84

Preparation of, 17

Parpose of, 3, 4

Unclean, 18
Fraud, 13, 16, 29, 58
Frijoles, 116
Fruit, 94, 114, 116, 120, 122

Dried, 1 20-1 2 1

Sugar, 91

Syrups,

Game, 112
Ginger, 138, 162

Adulterants, 138
Glazing, 35

Glucose, 91, 92, 93, 94, 98
Gluten, 65, 76, 82
Glycogen, 91
Graham Flour, 80
Grapes, 118

Juice, 13

Sugar, 91, 93, 94

Habits, 3, 18, 19
Health, 4, 18, 123
Home Economics, 8
Honey, 95-96

Adulterants, 95
Hook-worm Disease, 115
Housekeeper, iii, 6, 14
Housewife, 9, 10, 14, 18, 159
Housework, 7
Hygiene, 8, 9

Ice, 19

Indian Com, 75
Infants* Foods, 75, 84
Infection, 49
Invert Sugar, 91

Jellies, 122, 127-129
Adulteration, 128

Laboratories, iii, 126, 127, 131
Lactose, 91, 95
Lake Placid Conference, 8
Law, National Pure Food, 164-166
Leach, 28, 29, 85, 94
Lead in Canned Foods, 1 24^1 25
Leguminosae, 115
Lemon Extract, 144
Adulteration, 144
Lentils, 115, 116
Lettuce, 115
Levulose, 91, 94
Lime Juice, 13

Macaroni, 79, 83
Mace, y4, 136
Maize, 64, 75
Making of Cocoa, 44, 45

Coffee, 38, 45

Tea, 30, 31, 4 c
Malted Foods, 6g
Maltose, 91, 92
Manihot, 83
Maple Sugar, 90

Adulteration, 97
Markets, 108, no, 113
Meal, 65
Meat, 107-113

Canned, 109

Adulteration, 126

Cured, in

Preservatives, in, 112
Middlings, 81, 83
Milk, 47-54

Adulteration, 49

Buttermilk, 50

Cans, Washmg of, 22

Carrier of Infection, 49

Certified, 53

Clean, 51-52

Composition of, 47

Condensed, 53

Evaporated, 54

Food Value of, 47

Skim, 40, 50, 60

Sugar of, 91, 95
Adulterants, 95
MilUng Wheat, 77, 78
Molasses, 88
Mustard, 130-132, 162

Adulteration, 131

AND THEIR ADULTERATIONS

175

National Geographic Magazine,

74,80
National Pure Food Law, 164-166
Nitrobenzol, 146
Nitrogen in Wheat, 81
Nitrogenous Food, 156
Nutmegs, 134, 135
Nuts, 102-106

Oatmeal, 74

Adulteration, 74
Oats, 64, 74

Rolled, 69
OU, 156

Almond, 146

Clove, 137

Com, 106

Cottonseed, 106

Nut, 104, 105

Olive, 105

Adulteration, 106

Salad, 105
Oleomargarine, 58
Olive, 105, 142
Oysters, 11 2-1 13

, Packing Houses, 108, 109
Paprika, 134

Adulteration, 134
Peach, 118
Peanut, 105
Pears, 124
Peas, 115
Pecan, 104
Pectin, 91, 128
Pepper, 132-134, 162

Adulteration, 132
Perishable Foods — Meats, Poul-
try, Fish, 107-113

Fruits and Vegetables, 114-120
Phosphorus in Wheat, 81
Pickles, iv, 142
Pickling, 126
Pignolias, 104
Pimento, 137
Pineapple, 119
Pistachio, 104
Plums, 118
Potato, 83
Poultry, iio-iii

Ptomaine Poisoning, 1 1 1
Preservatives, iv, 12, 55, 60, 11 1,
112, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127,
129. 155, 160
Preserving, 122

Eggs, 62
Proteid, 116, 124
Prune, Ii8, 120
Pure Food Law, iv, 163-165

Shows, 15

Raisins, 121

Recapitulation, 155-163
Reducing Sugar, 91
Renovated Butter, 59
Rice, 64, 65, 70-74

Flour, 16

Kiushu, 73
Rye, I, 64, 75-76

Sago, 83

Salicylic Acid, 12
Salt, 143
Samovar, 30, 31

Tea Tablets, 29
Sausage, 112
School Museum, 128
Soda, 12, 150, 151
Sophistication, 14, 126, 158
Sorghum, 91
Soy Bean, 116
Spaghetti, 83
Spices, 12, 134-162

Adulteration of, 139
Spirit Vinegar, 141
Springs, 23
Standards, False, 60

for Fat in Butter, 57
Starch, 65, 69, 70, 71, 79, 83-84,

85»9i»93» "4. "6
Sugar, 91, 92
Substitute Coffee, 40, 41, 59

Egg. 63

Jellies, 128

Tea, 25
Sucrose, 87, 89, 91, 94
Sugar, 87-101, 114, 116

Adulteration, 96

Beet, 89-90

Brown, 88

176

FOOD MATERIALS

Sugar, Cane, 88

Granulated, 88

Grape, 93-94

Kinds of, 91

Lactose, 91, 95

Loaf, 89

Maple, 90-^1

Maltose, 91

of Milk, 95

Powdered, 89

Uses of, 99
Sulphites, 124
Syrup, 97

Fruit, 12
Swindling of the Housewife, 10

Tables, 18
Composition of Cereal Break-
fast Foods, 68
Cereal Grains, 85-86
Cheese, 61
Chicory, 36
Fruits, 94
Infants' and Invalids* Foods,

84
Nuts, 103
Vanilla Bean, 145
Tannin, 33
Tapioca, 83
Tea, 20, 23-31, 33
Adulterations, 27-29
Green, 24
Labrador, 25
Making of, 30, 31, 45

Tea, Sage, 25

Taster, 29
Tests, for Coal Tar Dyes in
Butter, 59
for Milk, 50
Tea, 28
Water, 23
Theine, 25, 33
Tin Cans, 124

in Food, 124, 125
Transportation of Meat, J07-108
Turmeric, 131, 132, 140, 162

Uncleanness, 18
Unsanitary, 18
UtiUty, Law of, 8

Vanilla, 145

Adulteration, 145
Vegetables, 11 4-1 16, 124
Vermicelli, 83
Vinegar, 140, 141

Adulteration, 141

Walnut, 104
Water, 20-23
Wells, 20, 21, 23
Wheat, 64, 76-82
Durum, 79--80
Whole Wheat Flour, 80
Wood Vinegar, 141

Yeast, 147-148, 149
Yucca, 83